World Financial Split Completes IPO

World Financial Split Corp. completed, on February 17, 2004, an initial public offering in Canada of $471.25 million of preferred shares and class A shares of World Financial. World Financial will invest the net proceeds from the offering in a portfolio, which will include common equity securities selected from the 10 largest financial services companies by market capitalization in each of Canada, the US and globally (the portfolio universe). In addition, up to 20 per cent of the net asset value of World Financial may be invested in common equity securities of financial services companies not included in the portfolio universe as long as such companies have a market capitalization at the time of investment of at least US$10 billion and for non-Canadian issuers, a minimum credit rating of “A” from Standard & Poor’s or a comparable rating from an equivalent rating agency.

The offering was led by RBC Capital Markets Inc., with a agent syndicate that included CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial, Canaccord Capital Corp., Desjardins Securities Inc., First Associates Investments Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and Raymond James Ltd.

World Financial and Mulvihill Capital Management Inc. were represented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, with a team that included Andrew Aziz, Andrew McGuffin and Katy Waugh. The agents were represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team that included Shawn McReynolds, Ronald Wilson and Ryan Voegeli.