NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
CALGARY, June 24 /CNW/ - (TSX -- COS.UN) - Canadian Oil Sands Trust (the "Trust" or "Canadian Oil Sands") today announced that in connection with the Trust's agreement to sell, to a syndicate of underwriters, 4,300,000 Trust Units on a bought deal basis at $35.15 per unit, the underwriters have exercised their option, in whole, to purchase an additional 1,200,000 Trust Units on the same offering terms. With the exercise of the option, the total gross proceeds of the public offering and the private placement that were announced on June 11, 2003 will be $228,475,000. Closing of the offerings is expected to occur on July 3, 2003. The Trust intends to use the proceeds from these equity offerings to finance a portion of its purchase of an additional 3.75 per cent interest in Syncrude from EnCana Corporation. The closing of this acquisition is expected to occur on or about July 11, 2003.
"I am pleased with the success of our recent financing and the exercise of the over-allotment option, which highlights the depth of investor support that our units enjoy and the market's acknowledgment of this acquisition's value to our unitholders," said Marcel Coutu, Canadian Oil Sands Limited's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The financing of our acquisition is expected to maintain a prudent capital structure, now approximately 36 per cent debt to total capitalization, supporting the Trust's desire to maintain stable distributions to our untiholders while retaining its capacity to fund Syncrude's growth plans."
Canadian Oil Sands Trust is an open-ended investment trust that generates income from its current 31.74 per cent indirect working interest in the Syncrude Joint Venture. The Trust currently has outstanding approximately 79.8 million units which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COS.UN. The Trust is managed by Canadian Oil Sands Limited.
This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, Trust Units in the United States, or any province or territory of Canada, nor shall there be any sale of the Trust Units in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Trust Units offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or applicable exemption from the registration requirement.
Advisory: in the interest of providing Canadian Oil Sands or the Trust's unitholders and potential investors with information regarding the Trust, including management's assessment of the Trust's future plans and operations, certain statements throughout this release contain "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: the anticipated closing date and the anticipated debt to equity levels. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are made as of the date of this release, and the Trust does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward- looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Canadian Oil Sands Limited,
Marcel Coutu,
President & Chief Executive Officer
Units Listed - Symbol: COS.UN
Toronto Stock Exchange -30- For further information: Siren Fisekci, Manager, Investor Relations, (403) 218-6228, investor_relations@cos-trust.com, Web site: www.cos-trust.com; To request a free copy of this organization's annual report, please go to http://www.newswire.ca and click on reports@cnw.
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