B2B Trust Completes Privatization

On June 8, 2004, Letters Patent of Amalgamation were issued by the Minister of State (Financial Institutions) to B2B Trust, thereby completing its privatization by way of amalgamation with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Laurentian Bank of Canada. The amalgamation had previously received overwhelming support by both shareholders as a whole and minority shareholders at a special meeting held on May 21.

The amalgamated company will continue to operate under the name B2B Trust. In accordance with the terms of the amalgamation, the minority shareholders received $9.50 per share in cash for their B2B shares, representing an aggregate amount of approximately $59 million.
Laurentian Bank intends to operate B2B as a wholly-owned subsidiary, with its head office located in Toronto.

Laurentian Bank and B2B Trust were represented by inhouse counsel, Lorraine Pilon, executive vice-president, corporate affairs and secretary, and by Ogilvy Renault, with a team composed of Jean Daigle, Marc Duquette, Amar Leclair-Ghosh, Jean Setlakwe and Claude Baril (corporate and securities) and Jules Charette and Éric Gélinas (tax).

TD Securities Inc. was retained as financial advisors to the independent committee of the board of directors of B2B. The independent committee was represented by McCarthy Tétrault, with a team composed of Lorna Telfer and George Maziotis (corporate and securities) and Claude Desaulniers and Ylang Ha (tax).