Canada Housing Trust Completes Bond Offering

On March 17, 2004, Canada Housing Trust No. 1, a special purpose securitization trust advised by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), closed a $4.45 billion offering of Canada Mortgage Bonds, series 7, guaranteed by CMHC.

CMHC and the trust were represented in Canada by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, with a team that included Rosalind Morrow (securities and derivatives), Stephen Redican and Gus Karantzoulis (banking and structured finance) Matt Campbell (securities) and Larissa Tkachenko (tax) in Toronto, and Daniel Gendron (civil) in Montreal. BLG also assisted CMHC’s in-house counsel Douglas Tyler and Reem Hindieh, as well as Ted Fujisawa, executive director, CIBC, administrator of the trust. In the US, CMHC and the trust were represented by Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, with a team that included Neil Westreich, Robert Harvey and Terry O’Brien (corporate) and Lewis Steinberg and Humberto Reboredo (tax).

The underwriters, led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., Scotia Capital Inc. and TD Bank, were represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team that included Carol Pennycook, Sonny Bhalla and Cynthia Cline in Toronto, and Scott Tayne in New York.