Enerplus Group Acquisitions

On January 8, 2001, EnerMark Income Fund (EnerMark), a member of The Enerplus Group of Companies (Enerplus), announced the successful completion of its acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of Cabre Exploration Ltd. (Cabre) under a friendly takeover bid. Cabre’s shareholders received 3.25 EnerMark trust units and a warrant to purchase additional EnerMark trust units at a price of $4.71, for each Cabre share. The total value of the transaction was approximately $350 million, including the assumption of approximately $40 million of outstanding bank debt.

This marks the third in a series of recent Enerplus acquisitions. In September 2000, EnerMark completed its acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of EBOC Energy Ltd. (EBOC), a private oil and gas producer based in Calgary, Alberta, under a friendly takeover bid for an all cash consideration and assumption of debt totaling $155 million.

In December 2000, Enerplus Resources Fund, the original royalty trust of The Enerplus Group of Companies, acquired all of the outstanding shares of Enerplus Pension Resource Corporation III (EPRC), a private Canadian pension resource corporation owning producing oil and natural gas properties in Western Canada, for a total consideration of $104 million. The acquisition was funded through a combination of cash and assumption of debt, together representing 75 per cent of the purchase price, and the issuance of Enerplus trust units representing the remaining 25 per cent of the purchase price.

EnerMark was represented on each of the EBOC and Cabre transactions by Brock Gibson, Wally Shaw, Scott Cochlan and Chad Schneider of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. EBOC was represented by Harley Winger and Roger MacLeod of Burstall Winger LLP, and Cabre was represented by Dale Burstall of Burstall Winger. In the EPRC transaction, Enerplus was represented by Blakes with Brock Gibson and Chad Schneider on corporate and securities matters, Chris Christopher on corporate and commercial matters and Wally Shaw on tax matters.

Lawyer(s)

Chris Christopher V.E. Dale Burstall Chad Schneider Brock W. Gibson Scott R. Cochlan Wallace Y. Shaw Roger O. MacLeod Harley L. Winger

Firm(s)