Canam Group Completes Refinancing Program

On March 30, 2005, Canam Group Inc. completed its refinancing program by replacing its current credit facility with a $180 million credit facility in Canada in the form of a revolving portion of $90 million renewable for a four-year term and a four-year term loan of $90 million. National Bank Financial Inc. acted as lead arranger for a banking syndicate.

Its subsidiary, Canam Steel Corp., also replaced its current credit facility by a US$50 million facility in the US in the form of a revolving portion of US$40 million renewable for a four-year and a four-year term loan of US$10 million.

Lastly, Canam Group completed the raising of $40,250,000 through a public offering of 7 million class A subordinate voting shares. The offering was underwritten by a syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and National Bank Financial Inc. that included Desjardins Securities Inc.

Canam Group was represented in Canada by Marc Novello, Martin Racicot, Patrick Daneau in Montreal, and Olivia Colic in Calgary of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; and by Steven Follett of Feltmate Delibato Heagle LLP in Oakville.

In connection with the Canadian credit facility, the lead arranger and the banking syndicate were represented in Canada by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team comprised of J. Michel Deschamps, Richard O’Doherty and Anne-Marie Durand in Montreal, Michael Polowin in Ottawa and Greg Liakopoulos in Calgary.

For the US credit facility, the lender was represented by Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP with a team comprised of Donald Baty, Jr., Tricia Sherick and Jonathan Block in Detroit.

Canam Steel was represented by DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP in Baltimore with a team that comprised Paul Novak, Leeann Kelly-Judd and Robin Krieger.

Lastly, for the public offering, Canam Group was represented in Canada by Fasken Martineau with a team that comprised Yvon Martineau, Jean-Pierre Chamberland, Mireille Tremblay and Sébastien Hébert; and in the US by DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary in Baltimore with a team that comprised Jay Smith and Jason Harmon. The underwriters were represented by André Roy, Pierre-Yves Leduc and Frédéric Brassard of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal.

The execution of the refinancing program was coordinated internally both at the Canam Group and Canam Steel levels by Louis Guertin, vice-president legal affairs and secretary, and in-house counsel Annie Vézina.