Consortium of Private Equity Groups Acquires Persona

Canadian Cable Acquisition Company Inc., a company owned by an investor group assembled by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. and comprised of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., TD Capital Canadian Private Equity Partners and CIBC Capital Partners, acquired all of the shares of Persona Inc., Canada’s sixth-largest cable operator and a Toronto Stock Exchange listed company, in a going private transaction effected by means of a plan of arrangement. The transaction was valued at approximately C$406 million and closed on July 30, 2004. Following the closing Persona’s shares were delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

As part of the transaction, Philip Keeping purchased a controlling interest in Cable Bahamas from Persona.

TD Bank and CIBC arranged senior secured credit facilities to partially fund the purchase price for the acquisition.

Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst and Canadian Cable were represented in Canada by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, with a team led by Stephen Erlichman (corporate/securities) and Barbara Miller (corporate/communications), which included Roxanne McCormick and Krisztian Toth (corporate/securities), Kathleen Hanly and Mitchell Thaw (tax), Brian Wright, Jon Holmstrom, Tom Meagher, Munier Saloojee and Scott Mitchell (banking), Ralph Nero (employment), Belinda James and Marc Vaturi (real property), Anthony Baldanza and Huy Do (competition) and Sam Rickett (litigation); and in the US by Weil, Gotshal & Manges, with a team led by Glenn West (corporate), which included Scott Parel and R.B. Ramsey (corporate) and Angela Fontana and Courtney Marcus (banking). Christopher Johnston, Q.C., of Johnston & Buchan acted as special counsel with respect to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission matters.

Persona was represented by Benson Myles, with a team led by Wayne Myles, Q.C. (corporate/communications) that included Jeffrey Benson, Q.C. (banking and financing), Joan Myles (regulatory), Ben Kavanagh, Jason Edwards, Colette Goodyear and Bernadette Cole (corporate), and Anthony Keenleyside, who acted as special counsel to Benson Myles with respect to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission matters; and by McCarthy Tétrault, with a team led by David Tennant (corporate/securities), which included Jasprit Gill and Joan Beck (corporate/securities), Stephen Furlan (banking), Gabrielle Richards and Steven Baum (tax), Gregory Winfield (pensions), Ben Ratelband (employment), Lorne Salzman (competition) and Harry Underwood and Gina Papageorgiou (litigation).

CIBC Capital Partners was represented in-house by Shawn Beber. TD Capital Canadian Private Equity Partners and CIBC Capital Partners were represented by Stikeman Elliott, with a team that included Roderick Barrett, Darin Renton, Ron Ferguson and Robert Assal.

TD Bank, CIBC and the other senior secured lenders were represented by Goodmans, with a team that included Celia Rhea, Jay Feldman and Steven Kresak (banking), Yi-Wen Hsu (tax), Ira Barkin (real estate) and Michael Koch (communications).

Philip Keeping was represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, with a team that included Mark Connelly and Peter Hong (corporate/securities) and Siobhan Monaghan (tax).