Loewen Emerges from Bankruptcy Protection

After two and a half years, the Loewen Companies will emerge from bankruptcy protection. On June 1, 1999, The Loewen Group Inc. (TLGI) and approximately 120 of its subsidiaries filed under the CCAA. Concurrently, TLGI filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with approximately 870 of its U.S. subsidiaries.

On December 7, 2001, Mr. Justice James Farley of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued his final order in the CCAA proceeding recognizing and implementing in Canada the U.S. Plan of Reorganization.

The case has a long and storied history involving: (a) the co-ordination of cross-border proceedings; (b) an enormous claims noticing process of more than 187,000 potential claimants; (c) the settlements of a dispute concerning the secured status of certain creditors to a Collateral Trust Agreement holding US$1 billion in debt; (d) the application of s. 18.6 of the CCAA and the first time a Canadian court has implemented in Canada a U.S. Plan of Reorganization affecting Canadian debtors and Canadian creditors; and (e) the reorganization and amalgamation in excess of one hundred Canadian operating companies. The new Canadian operating company, Alderwoods Group, will be headquartered in Toronto.

The Loewen companies were represented in Canada by Derrick Tay, Ian Ness and Orestes Pasparakis of Ogilvy Renault, under the direction of in-house counsel Bradley Stam. Geoffrey Morawetz and Melaney Wagner of Goodmans LLP represented KPMG in its capacity as monitor. The Unsecured Creditors’ Committee was represented by Jonathan Levin and Sheryl Seigel of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP. William Chambers and Joseph Marin of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP acted for the bank syndicate. Alex Zimmerman and Fred Myers of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP represented the Trust Company of Bank of Montreal.

Lawyer(s)

H. Alec Zimmerman Ian A. Ness William D. Chambers Jon Levin Melaney Wagner Joseph Marin Sheryl E. Seigel Orestes Pasparakis Derrick C. Tay Fred Myers