Canada Housing Trust No. 1 completes $5.5B public offering

On February 23, 2017, Canada Housing Trust No. 1 completed a two-tranche debt financing consisting of the issuance of Floating Rate Canada Mortgage Bonds, Series 75 (Re-Opening), in an aggregate principal amount of $3 billion and 2.35-per-cent Mortgage Bonds, Series 77, in an aggregate principal amount of $2.5 million for a combined total of $5.5 billion of Canada Mortgage Bonds, which were provided with Canada’s sovereign guarantee through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

CMHC was represented in-house by Reem Hindieh and Audrey Chauvin, who were assisted by Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, counsel to CMHC and special counsel to the trust, with a team that included Rosalind Morrow, Sienne Lam and Colin Cameron-Vendrig (corporate and securities), Stephen Redican, Gus Karantzoulis, Hannah Dutch, Evita Ferreira and Samantha Tom (banking and financial services) and Craig Webster (tax) in Toronto, and Johanne Thomas (civil) in Montréal.

In the United States, CMHC and the trust were represented by John Donovan, Sang Ji, Terry O’Brien, Steven Gee and Jeb Byrne of White & Case LLP.

The underwriting syndicate (for both Series 75 (Re-Opening) and Series 77) was led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., and The Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP represented the underwriters, with a team that consisted of Steven Smith and Blake Binions (corporate and securities) and Gregory Wylie (tax) in Toronto, Jason Comerford (corporate and securities), and Paul Seraganian and Jennifer Lee (tax) in New York.