Crown Packaging Completes Divestitures

Crown Packaging Ltd. completed the sales of all of its Canadian divisions and one of its US subsidiaries in March and April 2001. These sales generated proceeds of approximately $165 million and are part of Crown Packaging’s divestiture plan to repay its creditors. Crown Packaging has completed four separate sale transactions with the purchasers, including Port Townsend Paper Corporation, Norampac Inc., Paperboard Industries International Inc. of the Cascades Group, and Allpak Holdings, Inc.

Crown Packaging was represented by a team from Lang Michener’s Vancouver office led by Steve Mathiesen and including David Ross and Rubina Jamal, with assistance from John Morrison (secured creditors), Tony Knight (leasing), François Tougas (competition), Rick Bennett and Peter Botz (tax). The Lang Michener team worked closely with Crown Packaging’s executive team, which included Philip D. Seligman, General Counsel. Certain of Crown’s bondholders were represented by Ted Waksman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP’s New York office. Crown Packaging’s credit facility lender, ABN AMRO Bank Canada was represented by David Zacks of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP’s Vancouver office. Port Townsend Paper Corporation was represented by a team from Perkins Coie LLP’s Seattle office headed by Gail Runnfeldt with assistance from Al Smith (financing) and Ryan McFarland (financing) and a team from Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP’s Vancouver office headed by Phillip Marshall with assistance from Barry Dong (employment and pension), James Bond (commercial and intellectual property) and Jeff Goldenthal (financing) of Gowlings’ Toronto office.

Acting for Norampac Inc. and Paperboard Industries International Inc. were Robert F. Hall, General Counsel for Cascades, the parent company, Brigitte Dufour, General Counsel for Norampac and Miranda Melfi, General Counsel for Paperboard. They were assisted by a team from Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP including Charles R. Spector and Neil Katz of the Montreal office and Gordon Funt and Tony Wong of the Vancouver office and by Richard Epstein (competition) of Donahue Ernst & Young LLP’s Montreal office.

In the sale of Crown’s US subsidiary, Allpak Container, Inc., assisting was Crown’s US counsel, Pete Peterson of Peterson Russell Kelly PLLC, Bellevue, Washington and acting for the purchaser was Jon Schorr of Carney Badley Smith & Spellman, PS.