Sprott Physical Gold Trust Completes $430M IPO

On March 3, 2010, Sprott Physical Gold Trust completed a cross-border initial public offering of 43,000,000 trust units for gross proceeds of $430,000,000. The Trust was created to invest and hold substantially all its assets in physical gold bullion and provide a secure, convenient and exchange-traded way for investors interested in holding physical gold bullion without the inconvenience that is typical of a direct investment in physical gold bullion. The Trust is managed by Sprott Asset Management LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprott Inc. The units are listed on the NYSE Arca and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The offering was made simultaneously in the United States and Canada through a syndicate of underwriters led by Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets in the United States and RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley in Canada. The underwriters for the offering in Canada included BMO Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., Canaccord Adams, GMP Securities L.P., Dundee Securities Corporation and HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and the underwriters for the offering in the United States included HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.

Canadian counsel to the Trust and Sprott was Heenan Blaikie LLP, with a team that included Sonia Yung, Paola Turner and Ora Wexler (securities) and Peter Clark (tax). United States counsel to the Trust and Sprott was Seward & Kissel LLP, with a team that comprised Anthony Tu-Sekine, Paul Miller and Eric Wu (securities) and James Cofer (tax).

Canadian counsel to the underwriters was Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team comprised of Shawn McReynolds, Robert Murphy and Tracie Allan (Securities) and Ronald Wilson and Neal Armstrong (tax). United States counsel to the underwriters was Shearman & Sterling LLP, with a team comprised of Christopher Cummings, Stephen Centa, Hugo Sin and Tina Li (securities) and Laurence Crouch and Eileen O'Pray (tax).