Canadian Helicopters Income Fund Completes IPO

On September 9, 2005, Canadian Helicopters Income Fund completed its initial public offering of trust units at $10 per unit for aggregate proceeds of $100.8 million. The Fund used the proceeds of the offering to indirectly acquire the securities of Canadian Helicopters Ltd. from the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec (F.T.Q.), CHC Helicopter Corp. and certain members of management and to purchase leased aircraft and repay certain debts of Canadian Helicopters.

Canadian Helicopters is the largest helicopter trans-portation services company operating onshore in Canada and one of the largest in the world based on the size of its fleet. It operates 128 aircraft from 42 base locations across Canada, providing helicopter services to a broad range of sectors, including emergency medical services, infrastructure maintenance, utilities, oil and gas, forestry, mining and construction.

The offering was underwritten by a syndicate co-led by National Bank Financial Inc. and CIBC World Markets Inc. and including BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Scotia Capital Inc. and HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. The offering was also accompanied by the establishment of secured credit facilities in the principal amount of $50 million with a syndicate of financial institutions co-led by National Bank of Canada and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Canadian Helicopters was represented by a team from Stikeman Elliott LLP that included Franziska Ruf, Benoît Dubord and Véronique Faucher (securities), Nicolas Beugnot and Warren Silversmith (corporate), Jean Lamothe, Caroline Boutin, Mathias Chmielewski and Benoît Lavigne (banking), Robert Hogan, Marie-Andrée Beaudry, Antoine Stébenne and Marc-André Bélanger (tax), Jean Carrier and Myriam Fortin (environmental) and Gregory Kane, Q.C., (regulatory).

F.T.Q. was represented in-house by Sophie Julien. CHC was represented by Albert Hudec from Davis & Company LLP, and in-house by Martin Lockyer.

The underwriters and banks were represented by a team from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP that included Ward Sellers, Chris Murray, François Leblanc and Claude-Étienne Borduas (securities), Karen Shaw (corporate) and Etienne Massicotte (banking) and François Auger and Alain Fournier (tax).