Petro-Canada’s $2.5bn secondary offering from the government of Canada
CIBC World Markets, Merrill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets were joint bookrunners
The government of Canada’s secondary offering of its remaining 19% stake in the integrated oil and gas company Petro-Canada was a stunning success. The equity offering, the largest-ever completed for a Canadian company, was priced at the last sale, which represented a 4.6% premium to the filing price. Only one privatisation since the beginning of 2000 performed better during marketing.
Three teams of Petro-Canada management marketed the deal for five days through 15 cities in Canada, the US and Europe, achieving a hit ratio of 50%. The C$3.2bn offering was about two-times covered, with demand coming from 216 institutional buyers in 14 countries.
