An Ontario Superior Court has extended the bankruptcy protection period for the currently frozen $32 billion in asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) until after noteholders vote on a proposed restructuring plan.

The court extended the protection until May 30 at a hearing today. On March 17, the court granted a 30-day protection period for the notes, which would have expired tomorrow.

A committee chaired by Bay Street lawyer Purdy Crawford has been working since last August on hashing out a restructuring plan for the frozen notes. The controversial proposal has been tabled and noteholders are scheduled to vote on the plan April 25.

“The extension will simply continue the protections to date kept in place under the Court-ordered stay and allow voting on the plan to proceed as scheduled,” said Crawford, in a release.

Today’s court approval extends protection of the notes until after the vote and would allow time for the restructuring to be implemented should the proposal be approved. The plan must be approved by a majority of voting noteholders as well as by those representing at least 66 2/3% of the total amount of affected ABCP voting at the meeting.


Under the restructuring plan newly created notes with maturation dates of up to 9 years would replace the original short-term notes.