Petrobank Spins Out Petrominerales

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. and Petrominerales Ltd. completed a corporate reorganization pursuant to which Petrobank shareholders received Petrobank's proportionate interest in Petrominerales. Petrominerales, which was a TSX-listed 66 per cent-owned subsidiary of Petrobank prior to the spin-out, pursues a repeatable, high impact exploration strategy, focused in Colombia and Peru. Each Petrobank shareholder received 0.6142 Petrominerales shares for each Petrobank share held, through the receipt of shares of a newly incorporated Alberta corpo-ration that acquired all of the shares of Petrominerales. Existing public share-holders of Petrominerales received one share of the new public company for each Petrominerales held.

The spin-out was completed on December 31, 2010, by way of a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) and a concurrent scheme of arrangement under The Companies Act 1981 (Bermuda). Petrobank continues to own all of its other existing assets, including heavy oil and bitumen assets, Archon Technologies Ltd., which owns Petrobank's proprietary THAI and related technologies, and 59 per cent of the outstanding shares of TSX listed PetroBakken Energy Ltd.

The spin-out transaction was led by Tim Sweeney, in-house counsel to the Petrobank group. External counsel on the transaction included McCarthy Tétrault LLP (Petrobank's Canadian counsel), Vinson & Elkins LLP (Petrobank's US tax counsel), Ogilvy Renault LLP (Petrominerales' Canadian counsel), Conyers Dill & Pearman LLP (Petrominerales' Bermuda counsel) and Hodgson Russ LLP (Petrominerales' US tax counsel).

Petrobank's lead outside counsel for the transaction was McCarthy Tétrault LLP, with a team from Calgary and Toronto consisting of Robert Hansen, David Phillips, Matthew Kelleher, Juliamai Giffen, Mischa Zajtmann and Wilson Acton (corporate finance and M&A); Robert Nearing (tax); Douglas Yoshida and Adam Huff (plan of arrangement, litigation) and Daniel Sears (financial services).

Petrominerales' lead outside counsel for the transaction was Ogilvy Renault LLP, with a team consisting of Michael Bennett and Matthew Hall (corporate finance and M&A); and Adrienne Oliver and Ted Citrome (tax).

The Conyers Dill & Pearman Limited team consisted of Christian Luthi, David Cooke, Marcello Ausenda and Kathleen Moniz.

The Hodgson Russ LLP team consisted of Carol Fitzsimmons and Jessica Wiltse.

The Vinson & Elkins LLP team consisted of Edward Osterberg, Jr. and Shauna Gibbons.