Hockey Club Acquired

Capital Sports & Entertainment Inc., a company controlled by Eugene Melnyk, acquired the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club from Ottawa Senators Hockey Club Corporation pursuant to proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. acted as court-appointed monitor. The purchase price was approximately $100 million.

In a related transaction, Capital Sports Properties Inc., also controlled by Melnyk, purchased the Corel Centre in Ottawa from Ernst & Young Inc., in its capacity as interim receiver of the property and assets of Palladium Corporation. The purchase price was approximately $27.5 million. Both transactions closed on August 25, 2003.

Capital Sports & Entertainment and Capital Sports Properties were represented by Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP with a team led by Sheldon Plener and including Bruce McNeely, Jason Bullen and Cheryl Silver (mergers & acquisitions), Chris Besant, Frank Spizzirri and Marco Filice (bankruptcy and insolvency), Rick Angelson and Tom Kapsales (real estate), Len Glickman and Jason Klein (intellectual property) and Jim Rossiter (tax).

Ottawa Senators Hockey Club was represented by Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP in Ottawa, with a team that included Michael Gerrior, Paul Kane and Jennifer Sullivan. PricewaterhouseCoopers was represented by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Ottawa, with a team led by Marc Jolicoeur and including John O’Toole, Marc Babinski, Steve Thomas and Adam Fanaki.

Ernst & Young and Covanta Energy Corporation, the senior secured lender to Palladium, were represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Ottawa and Toronto, with a team that included Robert Chapman (corporate finance/mergers & acquisitions), Terry Dolan, Barbara Boake and Rachelle Mitchell-Gill (bankruptcy & insolvency), Thomas Conway (litigation) and Michael Polowin (real estate). In the U.S. Covanta Energy was represented by Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, with a team that included Deborah Buell, Filip Moerman, Paul Laikin and Shlomi Feiner (bankruptcy & insolvency) in New York.

The National Hockey League was represented by in-house counsel David Zimmerman, and by Norman Lieff, Geoffrey Gilbert and I.H. Fraser of Ogilvy Renault in Ottawa. In the U.S. Capital Sports Companies was represented by Coudert Brothers LLP in New York, with a team that included Anthony Kahn and Dane Peacock.