Playdium Obtains CCAA Protection

On February 22, 2001, Playdium Entertainment Corporation and several of its affiliates obtained court protection from their creditors pursuant to an order of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice made under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The Playdium companies are now in the process of attempting to restructure in excess of $60 million of debt. The Playdium companies operate large-scale entertainment centres in Mississauga, Ontario, Toronto, Burnaby, British Columbia and Edmonton, together with 50 smaller Game Centres located across Canada. The business operations are largely conducted via a partnership owned by Playdium and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Playdium. The initial stay of proceedings granted by the court was extended to apply to the partnership in order that the Playdium companies might have the opportunity to restructure their affairs.

Goodmans LLP is acting for the Playdium companies, led by Geoffrey Morawetz, Joseph Pasquariello and David Bish. PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. is the court-appointed Monitor of the Playdium companies, led by Chris Clark, Richard Pettit and David Filice. Counsel for Playdium’s secured creditors include Ray Goodwin, Gavin Tighe and Lloyd Houlden of Gardiner Roberts LLP for The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Mario Forte, Donna Parish and Marc Lavigne of Torys for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Andrew Kent, Paul Macdonald and Waël Rostom of McMillan Binch for Covington Fund I Inc. Currently acting for two of the Playdium companies’ landlords are Robert Arcand of McLean & Kerr LLP for Cambridge Shopping Centres Limited and Abraham Costin and Richard Orzy of McCarthy Tétrault for OMERS Realty Management Corporation.