Manulife Financial Completes $2.275B Equity Offerings

Manulife Financial Corporation completed offerings of equity securities on December 11, 2008, raising a total of $2.275 billion. $1.125 billion of common shares were sold by way of private placement to eight existing institutional investors. $1.150 billion of common shares were sold to a syndicate of underwriters in a bought deal public offering. The common shares were offered through agents and underwriters led by Scotia Capital Inc.

Manulife Financial was represented in-house by Jean-Paul Bisnaire, senior executive vice president, business development and general counsel, Richard Lococo, senior vice president and deputy general counsel, and David Kerr, assistant vice president, senior counsel, and by Torys LLP with a team consisting of Sharon Geraghty, David Seville, Glen Johnson, Jonathan Cescon, Jon Reay, Joshua Lavine and Raymond Archer (Canadian securities); Andrew Beck and Mark Irving (US securities); Blair Keefe (insurance regulatory) and James Welkoff and Catrina Card (tax).

The agents and underwriters were represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP with a team consisting of Barry Ryan, Andrew Parker, Richard Higa and Matthew Appleby and Leila Rafi (business law), and Jerald Wortsman and Gabrielle Richards (tax).