Banking & Debt Financing

We are recognized leaders in our fields and highly experienced in a wide range of complex and sophisticated debt-based financing transactions. We act for a broad range of lender clients, from traditional financial institutions such as banks, trust companies, credit unions and insurance companies to other financial service providers such as merchant banks, private equity funds, mezzanine lenders and equipment lessors. We act for these lenders in the full range of debt financing and credit-related transactions in which they become involved, including:

• Corporate lending
• Syndicated and participated loan transactions
• Acquisition financings (including complex leveraged buyout transactions)
• Operating and other commercial loan transactions
• Multi-jurisdictional financing transactions
• Real estate and construction financing
• Asset based lending
• Project financing
• Equipment leasing and financing
• Public/Private partnerships financing
• Private placements of debt
• Renegotiation and restructuring of debt
• Interest rate, currency, credit and commodity swaps and other derivative products
• Independent power project financing
• Letters of credit and other documentary credit transactions
• Deposit protection insurance transactions
• Aircraft financing

We also act extensively for borrowers in a similarly wide range of debt financing transactions and, as members of one of western Canada’s leading business law firms, are able to draw upon the considerable experience and skills of our lawyers in a variety of highly specialized areas of practice, including natural resources, energy, environmental, real estate, labour and employment, pensions and benefits and taxation.

Our approach to client service stresses responsiveness and a thoughtful, practical, problem-solving approach to the issues and challenges faced by our lending and borrowing clients in this very technical, deadline driven area of practice. Our focus is not just to identify problems, but to offer and implement solutions.

Experience

A representative list of transactions in which our Banking and Debt Financing Group has been engaged includes:

• Acting for one of North America’s leading producers of mechanical printing papers in the structuring, negotiation, establishment and syndication of a $330,000,000 asset based loan facility
• Acting for a leading Canadian manufacturer of concrete masonry and hollow-core concrete pipe in the structuring, negotiation, establishment and syndication of an aggregate of $65,000,000 in senior syndicated and subordinated credit facilities to finance an acquisition and the ongoing working capital requirements of the business
• Acting for a leading Canadian private equity firm in the structuring, negotiation, establishment and syndication of $94,000,000 in senior credit facilities in connection with the acquisition of a 50% equity interest in the largest Canadian manufacturer of specialized truck tanks and trailers
• Acting for the purchaser in structuring and implementing the debt component of the financing for a US$161,000,000 acquisition of a recycled newsprint mill in Arizona
• Acting for a leading Canadian private equity firm in the structuring, negotiation and establishment of senior syndicated and subordinated credit facilities aggregating $96,500,000 providing acquisition, term and operating financing for a leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of private label and branded food products
• Acting for a Canadian bank in structuring and establishment of $53,000,000 in credit facilities for the acquisition and phased renovation of a shopping mall in Nanaimo, British Columbia
• Acting for one of North America’s largest manufacturer’s of nails and bright and galvanized wire products in the negotiation and establishment of senior syndicated credit facilities in Canada and the United States aggregating in excess of $100,000,000
• Acting for a leading Canadian private equity firm in the structuring, negotiation and establishment of a $26,000,000 senior syndicated acquisition and operating credit facility and the provision of a related $8,250,000 secured mezzanine loan, all in connection with the acquisition of a regional cardboard packaging manufacturer with operations in Ontario and South Carolina
• Acting for a leading North American manufacturer of extrusion blow molded and injection blow molded plastic packaging products with operations in Ontario, Illinois, Missouri and California in the structuring, negotiation and establishment of $67,000,000 and US$18,000,000 senior syndicated term and operating credit facilities
• Acting for the issuer in connection with a $165,000,000 private placement to finance the public-private partnership design and construction of a bridge over the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories
• Acting for a pulp and paper mill in the restructuring of debt aggregating in excess of $350,000,000

Team