Ford Completes US$23.4B Secured Financing

Ford Motor Co. completed a US$23.4 billion secured financing on December 15, 2006. The financing included a seven-year US$7 billion term loan, US$4.95 billion in convertible notes and a five-year US$11.485 billion revolving credit facility. The deal was arranged by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, and Citibank, N.A. and Goldman Sachs Credit Partners, L.P., as syndication agents to the transaction.

Ford was represented in the US by Peter Sherry, secretary and associate general counsel, and by a team including Jennifer Hobbs, Erik Hepler and Mardi Merjian at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and in Michigan by Edwin J. Lukas at Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, P.L.C. In Canada, Ford of Canada's general counsel, Norm Stewart, and counsel, Hope Cushman, called on Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP for assistance. The Blakes team included Mark Selick and Manfred Lam (finance), Greg Frenette (corporate), Kathleen Penny (tax), Kevin McElcheran (creditors' rights), Ross McKee (securities) and David O'Brien (real estate).

The credit arrangers were represented in the US by a team led by Daniel Dokos and including Andrew Yoon, Danek Freeman, Marcus Villanueva, Timothy Nestler, Julio Gurdian (corporate), Philip Rosen and Moran Eizenberger-Brown (real estate) and Kim Blanchard and Sabrina Conyers (tax) from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. In Canada, the arrangers were represented by a team from McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP of Jeff Rogers, Michael Whitcombe, Patrice Beaudin, Jason MacIntyre, Andrew Kent and Tushara Weerasooriya (finance, restructuring and corporate), Todd Miller (tax), and David Slan and Andrea Onn (real estate).

The note underwriters were represented in the US by a team from Shearman & Sterling LLP, including Rebecca Hoskins, Lisa Jacobs, Jarett Schultz and Terence Woolf, and in Canada by Paul Budovitch, Conrad Druzeta and David White (securities) and Neal Armstrong and Claire Kennedy (tax) from Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP.