this press release posted at benzinga.com........
SickKids Launches Offering to Fund Construction of Research Tower
ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 7, 2009) - The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) announced today that it intends to issue approximately $200 million of Series A Senior Unsecured Debentures. The offering will be made by way of a private placement, pursuant to certain exemptions from the prospectus requirements of applicable securities laws of the provinces of Canada, and is expected to be completed prior to December 31, 2009.
The proceeds of the offering will be used to finance SickKids' proposed Research Tower and for general purposes.
The Research Tower will be a new 21-storey building to be built at the northwest corner of Bay and Elm Streets in Toronto's Discovery District. The Research Tower will consolidate all of the operations of SickKids Research Institute into a new, state-of-the-art facility.
The cost of the Research Tower is estimated to be approximately $400 million, which will be financed through a combination of government support, including the major portion of the previously announced $91 million in funding under the Canada Foundation for Innovation's Large-Scale Institutional Endeavours component of the Research Hospital Fund, the proceeds of the offering of Series A Senior Unsecured Debentures, a philanthropic capital fundraising campaign, and other sources. Construction of the Research Tower is expected to begin in the first half of 2010.
The Series A Senior Unsecured Debentures have been assigned a rating of Aa1 by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. and AA- by Standard & Poor's Rating Services, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The offering will be led by RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and TD Securities Inc.
SickKids is distinguished by its success in bridging basic research and clinical applicability. SickKids Research Institute, established in 1954, is one of North America's largest and most productive hospital-based research institutes. With a staff of almost 2,000 and an annual revenue of more than $146 million, SickKids Research Institute is known around the world; its multiple international collaborations focus on areas of significant health science strength in Canada, including stem cell research, regenerative medicine and genomics.
SickKids is affiliated with the University of Toronto. It is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country. As innovators, SickKids leads and partners to improve child health provincially, nationally and internationally through the integration of care, research and education, providing the best in complex and specialized family-centred care, groundbreaking scientific and clinical advances, sharing our expertise globally, enhancing an academic environment and championing an accessible, comprehensive and sustainable child health system. For more information, please visit
www.sickkids.ca.