Nortel Network Amends and Extends Credit Facilities

Nortel Networks completed, on December 20, 2001, the amendment and extension of its US$2 billion 364-day credit agreements entered into in June 2001 by Nortel Networks Limited and Nortel Networks Inc. with a syndicate of financial institutions led by JPMorgan Chase Bank. The amendments extend the term from June 14, 2002 to December 13, 2002, and reduce the size of the committed facility to US$1.575 billion. In connection with these amendments, security was granted over assets of Nortel Networks and certain of its subsidiaries and held in escrow by JPMorgan Chase Bank, as collateral agent, only to be released from escrow in the event that Nortel Networks Limited’s U.S. senior unsecured debt rating fell below the investment grade level. The security became effective on April 4, 2002 and now secures all of Nortel Networks’s credit agreements and outstanding public debt securities.
On April 8, 2002, Nortel Networks also completed the amendment and extension of its US$1.75 billion 364-day credit agreements entered into in April 2000 by Nortel Networks Limited and Nortel Networks Inc. with a larger syndicate of financial institutions also led by JPMorgan Chase Bank. These amendments extend the term from April 10, 2002 to April 7, 2003 and reduce the size of the committed facility to US$1.175 billion. These amended credit agreements are also secured by the security that became effective April 4, 2002.
Nortel Networks was represented by in-house counsel Deborah Noble, Blair Morrison, Anna Ventresca, Peter Kalins and Tracy Connelly. In Canada, Nortel Networks was represented by Ogilvy Renault, with a team comprised of James Riley, Sam Billard, Nicole Sigouin and Laverne Garcia (corporate finance) and Michael Lang (corporate securities) in Toronto, John Naccarato (real estate) in Ottawa and Martin Thériault (corporate finance) in Montreal. Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York represented Nortel Networks in the U.S., with a team comprised of Wanda Olson, Craig Brod, Penelope Christophorou, Jonathan Wiener and Jonathan Ross (corporate), Donald Stern and Bessie Giannopulos (real estate) and Leslie Samuels, William McRae and Les Kulin (tax).
JPMorgan Chase Bank was represented in Canada by McMillan Binch, with a team comprised of Tim Baron and Jeff Van Damme (corporate finance) and Andrea Onn (real estate); and in the U.S. by Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, with a team including Peter Levin, Tiziana Tabucchi, Jason Kyrwood, Adam Kaplan and Felicia Williams (credit transactions) and Susan Kennedy and Matthew Weidner (real estate).