From left to right: Flowing River Capital founders Tyler Willox, Cadmus Delorme, Thomas Benjoe, and Eric Clark in Regina.Heywood Yu/The Globe and Mail
In a bid to benefit from Canada’s commitment to boost military spending, an Indigenous-led investment company is acquiring a unit of a struggling British-based defence contractor.
Regina-based Flowing River Capital has agreed to buy Marshall Land Systems from Cambridge-based Marshall Group, for an undisclosed amount.
The unit, which has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, builds and maintains light armoured vehicles, bomb disposal vehicles, and other types of defence infrastructure. Its main Canadian operation is in Moncton, N.B., where it has about 100 employees.
With the deal, it becomes Canada’s largest, Indigenous-owned military contractor, said Thomas Benjoe, Flowing River’s chief executive officer.
“This part of the business, its products and services, are strongly aligned with where Canada is opting to move in terms of their announcements on their spend,” Mr. Benjoe said in an interview.
“If we look at upgrades to our military, the work and service that our organization provides, it’s going to be in high demand. So we’re hoping that this ability to build that capacity will be seen as very favourable in our federal and Dept. of National Defence eyes.”
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Flowing River launched earlier this year to build know-how within Indigenous communities to acquire interests in companies across various sectors so they can invest in more community and social needs. It is part of an expanding ecosystem of First Nations, Métis and Inuit asset-management and private-equity firms that are increasingly influential across the country’s financial system.
In June, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would join its NATO allies in raising defence spending to the equivalent of 5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2035.
Marshall Land Systems is a supplier to Canada’s Logistics Vehicle Modernization Project, under which the military is buying new fleets of light and heavy logistics vehicles, trailers and armour protection kits.
The Canadian Forces will use the vehicles to transport personnel, equipment and supplies at home and abroad. The first delivery is slated for 2027, according to the government.
The company aims to expand by supplying other Canadian defence needs and developing new technology, Mr. Benjoe said.
Part of that growth could stem from federal procurement policies that favour Indigenous suppliers, he added.
With the acquisition, Flowing River is counting on turning around a loss-making division from Marshall Group, which has been undergoing a restructuring following years of “significant losses” in 2024.
Part of that was due to poor financial results at the land systems division, which lost £36.1-million for the year before tax in 2024. The loss was partly the result of some unprofitable longstanding contracts, research firm Equity Development reported in September. The parent company, whose roots date back a century, took a £34-million impairment charge on the division that year.
However, Mr. Benjoe said a turnaround was already under way as the acquisition talks proceeded, and a big part of that was a new management team that had taken the reins.
“They’ve done a fantastic job of moving some pretty significant milestones very quickly, far ahead of schedule,” he said. “The team’s been able to go back and renegotiate a lot of those contracts in favour of the growth of Marshall Land Systems, so we’re quite confident that we’ve already made major headway with some of the turnaround that was needed.”