St. Marys Cement Completes US$575M Credit Facility

On October 18, 2006, St. Marys Cement Inc., a member of the Votorantim Group, together with its subsidiaries St. Marys Cement Inc. (Canada), St. Marys Cement Inc. (US) and VCNA Nova Scotia ULC, completed its refinancing program by a combination of replacing and continuing its current credit facility with a US$575 million credit facility, in the form of a revolving portion of US$150 million and a five-year term loan of US$425 million. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Toronto branch acted as sole administrative agent and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as co-lead arrangers.

The St. Marys legal team was led by Jolanta Malicki, general counsel, and was represented in Canada by McCarthy Tétrault LLP, with a team that included Jerald Wortsman and Gwendolyn Watson (tax); Linda Pieterson, Gordon Baird and Nicola Geary (banking and corporate); and David Bross (real estate) in Ontario and Mathieu Dubord in Quebec. St. Marys was also represented by White & Case LLP with a team that included Eric Berg, Joshua Thompson, Katherine Salisbury, Jessica Marchand, Beth Rasmussen and Lisa Alexander (bank finance); Oliver Brahmst and Jeff Escuder (M&A); Wilda Lin (tax) and Peter Trimarchi (environmental); in Brazil included Donald Baker (corporate) and Daniel Duval (banking); and in Florida included H. William Walker, Steven Vainder, Pej Razavilar, Krista DeCastro, David Segrera and Kimberly Dressler (real estate).

The lenders were represented in Canada by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, with a team that included Michael Harquail, Michael Burke and Michelle Laniel (banking); Leslie Morgan and Chris Van Loan (tax); and Silvana D'Alimonte (real estate) in Ontario and Viorelia Guzun in Quebec. The lenders' counsel in the US was Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, with a team that included Richard Gray, Matthew DelRosso and Linda Robinson.