EXFO Files for $177 Million Initial Public Offering

On June 9, 2000, Quebec City-based EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (EXFO), which designs, manufactures and markets fiber-optic test, measurement, and monitoring instruments for the telecommunications industry, filed a preliminary prospectus in Canada and in the United States relating to an initial public offering of Subordinate Voting Shares. EXFO expects to raise between approximately $177 million to approximately $224 million from the offering.

The offering is led by Merrill Lynch & Co. and also includes, as syndicate members, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and CIBC World Markets in Canada with the addition of Wit SoundView in the United States.

Legal advice is being provided to EXFO by Robert Paré, Peter Villani, François Duchesneau, Jean-François Hébert, Simon Marchand-Fortier and Frédéric Boucher of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP’s Montreal office, and by Edwin S. Maynard, Tong Yu and Cécile Baume of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Legal advice to the underwriters is provided by Norman M. Steinberg, Dominique Fortin and Pierre Déry of Ogilvy Renault and by Christopher W. Morgan, Riccardo A. Leofanti and Jason M. Saltzman of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.