Philip Services Corp. (PSC) and its US and Canadian subsidiaries completed a cross-border US$2 billion restructuring on December 31, 2003. New York-based High River LP invested in excess of US$170 million as part of the global restructuring.

PSC and its US subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US on June 2, 2003. On September 19, PSC and certain of its US subsidiaries commenced ancillary proceedings in Canada under s. 18.6 of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). A number of PSC Canadian subsidiaries also commenced proceedings under s. 18.6 on the same day and Ernst & Young Inc. was appointed interim receiver of certain assets of the Canadian subsidiaries of PSC, with a limited mandate. The restructuring was concluded by a plan of reorganization being approved in the US and a sale by E&Y of substantially all the assets of the Canadian subsidiaries to PSC Analytical Services Inc. and PSC Industrial Services Canada Inc., newly formed subsidiaries of restructured PSC...

...Wells Fargo Foothill, Inc., agent for the senior secured creditors, was represented in Canada by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, with a team that included Nicholas Leblovic (corporate), James Doris (litigation and insolvency), Jay Swartz (insolvency), Marc Shewchun (corporate) and Matthew Milne-Smith (litigation)...