Equitable Group issues US$50 million of non-cumulative 5-year rate reset preferred shares

On September 1, 2009, Equitable Group Inc. announced that it had successfully raised total proceeds of $50 million by way of a bought deal prospectus offering and private placement offering. A total of 2,000,000 Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series 1 of Equitable were sold at a price of $25.00 per share. Of the shares issued, 1,640,000 were placed on a bought deal basis with a group of underwriters led by National Bank Financial Inc. and GMP Securities L.P. The bought deal raised gross proceeds of $41 million, which included the concurrent exercise of the over-allotment option. Equitable sold the remaining shares on a private placement basis to Canadian Western Bank. Equitable used the total proceeds from the offerings to acquire Non-Cumulative 5-Year Rate Reset Preferred Shares, Series 1 from its wholly-owned subsidiary, The Equitable Trust Company, which qualify as Tier 1 capital for Equitable Trust. Fasken Martineau advised the underwriters with a team led by Robert McDowell, along with Tracy Hooey, Rob Mason, Koker Christensen, Geoff Clarke, Jennifer Armstrong and Amanda Fullerton.