Canada Housing Trust No. 1 Closes $4.27B Public Offering

On June 23, 2005, Canada Housing Trust No. 1, a special purpose securitization trust the issuance of which are guaranteed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), closed a two-tranche offering of $3.1 billion of 3.55 per cent Canada Mortgage Bonds, series 11 and $1.17 billion of floating-rate Canada Mortgage Bonds, series 12, for a total offering of $4.27 billion.

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP represented CMHC and was special counsel to the trust, with a team that included Rosalind Morrow and Adam Segal (securities and derivatives), Stephen Redican, Gus Karantzoulis and Terence Lui (banking and structured finance) and Larissa Tkachenko (tax) in Toronto and Daniel Gendron (civil) in Montreal. BLG assisted CMHC's in-house counsel Douglas Tyler, Louise Michel, Reem Hindieh and Joanne Lucas. In the US, CMHC and the trust were represented by Robert Harvey and Terry O'Brien (securities) and Michael Schler and Darren Heil (tax) of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

The underwriters, led by CIBC World Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Scotia Capital Inc. and the Toronto-Dominion Bank, on the series 11 offering, and by CIBC World Markets Inc., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and the Toronto-Dominion Bank on the series 12 offering, were represented by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. The Davies team consisted of Carol Pennycook and Sonny Bhalla (securities) and Ron Wilson (tax) in Toronto, and Scott Tayne and Charles Malone (securities) and Michele Alexander and Pamela Marcogliese (tax) in New York.

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