Cascades Completes Refinancing

On February 5, 2003, Kingsey Falls, Quebec-headquartered Cascades Inc. completed the refinancing of substantially all of its and its subsidiaries’ outstanding credit facilities and credit lines. The refinancing included the private placement to institutional investors of US$450 million 7 1/4 per cent senior notes due 2013. The notes are unsecured obligations for Cascades and are guaranteed by certain of Cascades’s Canadian and U.S. subsidiaries. Salomon Smith Barney and Scotia Capital Inc. acted as joint book-running managers and NBC International (USA) Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., BNP Paribas, Comerica Securities, SG Cowen Securities Corporation, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. and TD Securities Inc. acted as co-managers.

Concurrently with the private placement, Cascades and its subsidiaries also entered into a four-year $500 million revolving credit facility with a banking syndicate led by The Bank of Nova Scotia, and including CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Citibank, N.A., BNP Paribas, Comerica Bank, Société Générale, Bank of Montreal, Caisse centrale Desjardins and The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

For the private placement, the Cascades legal team was led in-house by Robert Hall, vice-president, legal affairs, and corporate secretary, and in-house counsel Michael Guérra, assisted in Canada, by Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP with a team that included Charles Spector, Vitale Santoro and Constantine Kyres (tax), and in the U.S., by Jones Day with a team that included Steven Guynn, Richard Kosnik, Meredith Berkowitz, Jonathan Cole, Jennifer Smith and Rory Lyons (tax). The initial purchasers were represented in Canada, by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP with a team that included Patricia Olasker, Robert Murphy and Siobhan Monaghan (tax), and in the U.S., by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP with a team that included Matthew Bloch, Boris Dolgonos and Stuart Morrissy.

For the bank financing, Cascades was represented in Canada, by Marc Novello and Martin Racicot of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, and in the U.S., by Stephen Hall of Jones Day. The banking syndicate was represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Montreal, with a team that included J. Michel Deschamps and Richard O’Doherty (financial services), Vanessa Dumoulin (environmental) and Louis-Martin Dubé (real property and planning), assisted by Michael Clain of Brauner Baron Rosenzweig & Klein, LLP in New York.