TELUS Exits Equipment Leasing Business

TELUS Corporation, a leading Canadian provider of communications products and services, announced in September that it would exit its equipment leasing business. The transaction, which closed on October 4, 2001, involved the securitization of TELUS’s existing portfolio of leases, valued at $147 million, into a securitization trust, as well as the implementation of a third-party finance programme for future transactions involving TELUS customers. GE Capital Vendor Financial Services (VFS), a global provider of financing solutions to manufacturers, dealers and end-users, was the investor in the programme and also agreed to administer and service the portfolio on behalf of the securitization trust. A separate agreement established VFS as the preferred provider of future equipment financing for TELUS customers.

GE Capital was represented by in-house counsel Paula Hurwitz, together with a team from Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP comprised of James G. Rumball, Antonio Di Tullio, Sonny Bhalla and Lisa Hughes, with assistance from Ronald S. Wilson (tax) and Christopher D. Margison (competition), and with further assistance from Larry Page of Bull, Housser & Tupper. The Davies Ward team also represented the securitization trust. TELUS was represented by Elizabeth J. Harrison, Q.C., and Gillain Malfair with help from Alan Hamilton, all of Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy, and by Thomas A. Bauer (tax) of Thorsteinssons.