On December 18, 2006, Bombardier Inc. entered into a new €4.3 billion syndicated letter of credit facility completing its 2006 refinancing initiative, which included, in addition to the letter of credit facility, the issuance in Europe and the United States of €1.9 billion aggregate principal amount of senior notes and a debt tender offer in Europe. The senior note offering marks the largest high-yield debt offering in Europe by a Canadian corporate issuer.
The issuance of Bombardier's senior notes, which was completed on November 16, 2006, was effected on an institutional private placement basis in Europe and the United States. The issuance was comprised of three tranches of notes, namely €800 million of Floating Rate Senior Notes due 2013, US$385 million of 8 per cent Senior Notes due 2014 and €800 million of 7.25 per cent Senior Notes due 2016. The placement of Senior Notes was led by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., JP Morgan Securities Ltd. and BNP Paribas Securities Corp, as joint lead and joint book-running managers.
A portion of the net proceeds of the senior notes issuance was used to fund tender offers in Europe by Bombardier and its affiliate Bombardier Capital Funding Limited Partnership. Pursuant to those tender offers, which closed on November 17, 2006, Bombardier Capital Funding repurchased approximately €232 million of its 6.125 per cent Notes due 2007 and Bombardier repurchased approximately €218 million of its 5.75 per cent Notes due 2008.
Deutsche Bank AG acted as dealer-manager for the tender offers.
On December 18, 2006, Bombardier entered into a new €4.3 billion syndicated letter of credit facility to replace existing North American and European facilities. ABN Amro Bank N.V., Bayern LB, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank AG, Dresdner Kleinwort, JP Morgan PLC and KfW are acting as lead arrangers for Bombardier's new letter of credit facility.
The transactions were led in-house by Daniel Desjardins, senior vice president and general counsel, Alain Doré, senior director, legal services and Chantal Robitaille, senior director, legal services. Ogilvy Renault LLP in Montreal and London and Sidley Austin LLP in New York acted as counsel to Bombardier. Ogilvy Renault's team was comprised of Paul Raymond, Peter Noble, Solomon Sananes, Pete Wiazowski, Niko Veilleux and Susan Mann (corporate and securities), Robert Borduas, Nicola Ezra and Alain Ricard (banking) and Jules Charette and Éric Gélinas (tax). Sidley Austin's team was comprised of Chris Hilbert, Andrew Nelson, Alexi Poretz and Sarah Coad (corporate and securities), John Bonacum (banking) and Michael Mann (tax).
The joint lead and joint book-running managers for the issuance of senior notes were represented on Canadian law matters by Stikeman Elliott LLP, with a team that included Jean-Marc Huot, Sherry Roth, Nicolas Vanasse and Stéphanie Raymond-Bougie (corporate), and on US law matters by Davis Polk & Wardwell, with a team that included Richard Drucker, Richard Truesdell, Jeffrey Pohlman and Ben McAdams. The lead arrangers for the new letter of credit facility were represented in Europe by Allen & Overy LLP with a team comprised of Peter Shultz and Tim Crocker, and on Canadian law matters by Stikeman Elliott LLP, with a team that included Jean Lamothe (banking) and Luc Bernier and Jean-Guillaume Shooner (tax).
