ENERGY TRUSTS / Optus distribution
OPTUS Increases Distributions by 30% to $3.00 Effective Immediately Reflecting Completion of WestCastle Acquisition
CALGARY, Nov. 3 /CNW/ - OPT.UN:TSE - OPTUS Natural Gas Distribution
Income Fund (''OPTUS'') announced today that it has completed the acquisition
of WestCastle Energy Trust (''WestCastle'') pursuant to its offer dated August
28, 1998 (''the Offer''). WestCastle unitholders who have tendered their
units pursuant to the extension of the Offer will receive, in the case of the
cash election, $5.70 per unit and in the case of the OPTUS unit election a
combination of $0.442 cash per WestCastle unit and 0.285 of an OPTUS unit per
WestCastle unit. Any fractions of OPTUS units will be paid in cash using a
$5.70 WestCastle price.
Contemporaneously with the completion of the acquisition, OPTUS also has
announced that the annual distribution rate is increasing for the fifth time
since the fund's inception in 1996 to $3.00 per unit ($0.25 monthly per unit).
This represents a 30% increase over the previous distribution rate and a
greater than 100% increase since July 1996. Since its inception, OPTUS has
the highest total return compared with all other publicly traded income funds
or REIT's in Canada.
OPTUS also announces that R. Bradley Hurtubise has joined the senior
executive team of Direct Energy Marketing Limited (''DEML''), OPTUS's
operating company, as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Hurtubise had previously joined WestCastle Energy Trust as Chairman and
CEO in the spring of 1998. Prior thereto, Mr. Hurtubise was President of Grad
& Walker Energy Corporation, an intermediate sized oil and gas company and a
Vice President and Director of Nesbitt Burns, a major Canadian investment
bank.
OPTUS is an income trust, which through DEML is Canada's largest
independent natural gas marketing company, currently distributing natural gas
to approximately 500,000 residential and small business customers in Ontario,
Manitoba and Quebec. DEML supplies approximately 750 million cubic feet of
natural gas per day to industrial, institutional and utility customers in
North America. OPTUS has a market capitalization of approximately $460
million.
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For further information: OPTUS Natural Gas Distribution Income Fund,
c/o Direct Energy Marketing Limited, Gary Drummond, Brad Hurtubise, Louis
Dufresne, Tel: (403) 266-6393, Fax: (403) 266-6684
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