Essar Steel Algoma Completes US$400M Cross-Border High Yield Offering

On December 14, 2009, Essar Steel Algoma Inc. (ESAI) completed a cross-border private offering of US$400-million aggregate principal amount of 9.375 per cent senior secured notes due 2015, with UBS Securities LLC as the initial purchaser. ESAI applied the net proceeds from the sale of the notes to repay all amounts outstanding under its existing senior secured term loan facility and to repay a portion of the amount outstanding under its existing senior secured revolving credit facility.

ESAI was represented in-house by Victoria Chiappetta, Vice President, Legal; a team from Stikeman Elliott LLP that included John Ciardullo, Ian Putnam and Jeremy Ehrlich (securities/corporate); Peter Hamilton, Meaghan Obee Tower, Melissa Uster (banking/financing); Corinne Pruzanski and Andy Gibbons (real estate); and by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, acting as US counsel. The Cleary Gottlieb team for the offering included Craig Brod, Michael Volkovitsch, David Webb, Adam Brenneman and Daniel Riley (corporate); Kate Sawyer (UCC matters); Daniel Ilan and Thomas Wilhelm (intellectual property); and Erika Nijenhuis and Jean-Charles Benois (tax). All lawyers are based in New York.

UBS was represented in the US by a team from Latham & Watkins LLP that included Peter Labonski, Keith Halverstam, Nathan Ajiashvili, Fredric Glassman, Katherine Brown (corporate/capital markets); Christopher Plaut, J. Christopher Dorian, Jenny Ho and Amber Haywood (banking/financing); and in Canada by a team from Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP that included Peter MacGowan, Aimee Yee, Mark Platteel (financial services); Brendan Reay, Silvana D'Alimonte, and Lauren Temple (real estate).