Representative Mandates
Bell Canada reorganization
TGF acted for a committee of contesting bondholders (mostly large life insurance companies) in the proposed BCE acquisition which was, at the time, the world’s largest leveraged buyout with an enterprise value of $52 billion.
The Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan proposed to acquire BCE by raising $30 billion of incremental bond debt. This would have transformed one of Canada’s iconic blue chip companies into a junk bond issuer.
The case drew global attention as it sped through three levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada in just nine months. In the result, the proposed acquisition did not proceed and the interests of the bondholders represented by TGF were protected. The Supreme Court of Canada decision has become the leading case on the oppression remedy and the test to be applied in CBCA plans of arrangement.