Select 50 S-1 Income Trust Completes Offering

In August 2003, Select 50 S-1 Income Trust completed an offering of 31,313,343 trust units at $10 per unit for gross proceeds of $313,133,430. The original offering for $300 million closed on August 20, and the closing for the exercise by the agents of their over allotment option, for $13,133,430 occurred on August 28.

The trust’s objectives are to maintain a Standard & Poor’s SR-1 stability rating and to provide unitholders with monthly distributions to the extent of the distributions received by the trust.
The trust’s portfolio will be made up of the 50 largest Canadian income funds determined by float capitalization, excluding those income funds that have a stability rating less than SR-5 and unrated income funds of similar quality. The weightings of the portfolio holdings are subject to pre-determined portfolio criteria and limits which will be re-balanced at least once per year.
The trust is the first SR-1 rated passive trust of income funds. It has entered into a credit facility with the Bank of Nova Scotia, which permits the trust to borrow an amount not exceeding 15 per cent of the value of the total assets of the trust.

National Bank Financial and CIBC World Markets Inc. co-led the offering, with a syndicate that included RBC Dominion Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., Canaccord Capital Corp., Dundee Securities Corp., First Associates Investments Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and Raymond James Ltd.

Sentry Select and the trust were represented by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, with a team that included Paul Findlay, Michael De Cosimo and Sarah Gardiner (securities/corporate), Stephen Fyfe and Stephanie Wong (tax) and Joanne Foot and Bindu Pendala (banking).

The agents were represented by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, with a team that included Jeff Glass and Anoop Dogra (securities/corporate) and Peter Lee (tax). The Bank of Nova Scotia was represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, with a team that included John Torrey and Thomas Meagher.

Lawyer(s)

John W. Torrey Peter Lee Stephanie A. Wong Bindu Cudjoe Paul G. Findlay Thomas M. Meagher Stephen J. Fyfe Anoop Dogra Joanne E. Foot Jeff Glass Michael C. De Cosimo Sarah K. Gardiner