TransCanada closes $4.4B offering, obtains US$10.3B of debt bridge financing

On April 1, 2016, TransCanada Corporation closed a bought deal offering of subscription receipts in Canada and the United States for aggregate gross proceeds of $4.4 billion, which, at the time, constituted the largest bought deal offering in Canadian history.  RBC Dominion Securities Inc., TD Securities Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Canada Inc., Wells Fargo Securities Canada, Ltd., Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Canada Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., FirstEnergy Capital Corp., Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd. and Peters & Co. Limited acted as underwriters in respect of this offering. TransCanada also announced, on March 17, 2016, that it had obtained US$10.3 billion of committed debt bridge financing from a syndicate of lenders. The proceeds from the offering and the bridge facilities will support TransCanada’s proposed acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. for US$13 billion.

TransCanada was represented by its in-house counsel Chris Johnston, Lisa Grams, Tara Shaw, Jane Brindle and Meghan Lindsay and assisted, with respect to Canadian matters, by a team at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP including Ross Bentley, Dan McLeod, Trevor Rowles, Nav Dhaliwal and Vladimir Cvijetinovic (corporate/securities), Michael McIntosh and Andrew Kolody (banking) and Jeffrey Trossman, Sabrina Wong and Carrie Aiken (tax), and with respect to US matters, by a team at Mayer Brown LLP including Michael Hermsen and Nicole Puza (corporate/securities) and James Barry (tax).

The underwriters were represented, with respect to Canadian matters, by a team at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP including Kevin Johnson, QC, Marcus Archer, Kathleen Cowick, Jason Giborski and Nathan Hillier (corporate/securities) and Dion Legge (tax) and, with respect to US matters, by a team at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP including Christopher Cummings, Stephen Centa and Ronnie Ollo (corporate/securities), William O’Brien (environmental Law), and David Mayo and Amir Cooper (tax). The syndicate of lenders under the debt bridge financing commitments was represented by a team at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP including Richard Borden and Matthew Longstaff.