The Pan-Canadian Investors Committee for Third-Party Structured ABCP has commenced the final steps to implement its plan to restructure $32-billion of third-party asset-backed commercial paper that has been frozen since August 2007.
The announcement follows the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on Friday to deny leave to appeal by a small group of corporate investors who had sought to challenge the Superior Court of Ontario’s sanction of the committee’s plan and the Ontario Court of Appeal’s unanimous ruling affirming that decision.
The plan, which will see existing ABCP exchanged for longer-term notes, was approved in April by the overwhelming majority of investors under the provisions of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
The “decision clears the last significant hurdle to completing our work,” says Purdy Crawford, chairman of the committee.
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He adds that he is hopeful the issuance of new notes would re-establish stability and liquidity in the market over time.
The committee expects to be in a position to commence the process for implementation of the restructuring by Sept. 30 or shortly thereafter, with a view to completing implementation during the month of October.
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