Canada Housing Trust's $2.5B in Bonds Guaranteed by CMHC

Canada Housing Trust No. 1, a special purpose securitization trust, closed an offering on October 25, 2001 of $2.5 billion in bonds guaranteed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the second offering under CMHC’s new Canada Mortgage Bond Program (CMB). This fully underwritten offering was the largest single-tranche bond offering to date in Canada’s history (excluding benchmark bond offerings by the federal government).

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP represented CMHC and was special counsel to Canada Housing Trust No. 1. The BLG team included Lee Woods (real estate), John Tobin (tax and structured finance), Rosalind Morrow (securities and derivatives) and Stephen Redican, Carlyn Klebuc, Matt Campbell and Caroline Goss (corporate) in Toronto. BLG assisted CMHC’s in-house group, which was led by general counsel Douglas Tyler and solicitor Reem Hindieh and included Louise Michel and Hélène Mathieu. Civil law services were provided by Johanne Thomas, Pierre Côté and Pierre d’Etcheverry of BLG’s Montreal office. Robert Mullen and Lalenya Siegel of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy advised CMHC and Canada Housing Trust No. 1 on U.S. legal matters.

The underwriters, led by TD Securities Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and CIBC World Markets, were represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. The Davies team consisted of Carol Pennycook, Michael Clifford and Timothy Moran in Toronto and Guy Lander and Scott Tayne in New York.