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Gold/Mining/Energy : KERM'S KORNER -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (12688)	10/7/1998 2:29:00 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15196

ENERGY TRUSTS / Optus acquires Westcastle OPTUS ACQUIRES 94% OF WESTCASTLE ENERGY TRUST CALGARY, Oct. 6 /CNW/ - OPTUS Natural Gas Distribution Income Fund (''OPTUS'') (OPT.UN:TSE) announced today that it has taken up approximately 2 million additional trust units (''WestCastle Units'') of WestCastle Energy Trust deposited under its offer to purchase all of the issued and outstanding WestCastle Units dated August 28, 1998 (as amended on September 21, 1998). To date, OPTUS has taken up approximately 19.5 million WestCastle Units or 94% of the issued and outstanding WestCastle Units. OPTUS also announced that it intends to acquire all of the remaining WestCastle Units pursuant to the compulsory acquisition provisions of the WestCastle Energy Trust Indenture the (''Trust Indenture'') dated as of January 20, 1997, as amended. All WestCastle Unitholders who tendered their units to the OPTUS bid will receive the November distribution of $0.25 per unit reflecting the recently announced increased annual distribution to $3.00 per OPTUS unit. WestCastle Unitholders who have tendered their units to the extended 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 $1.43 cash per WestCastle unit and 0.231 of an OPTUS unit per WestCastle unit. Any fractions of OPTUS units will be paid in cash using an $18.45 OPTUS price. OPTUS is an income trust which through Direct Energy Marketing Limited (''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. After completion of the acquisition of WestCastle Energy Trust and the issuance of trust units pursuant to the subscription receipts, OPTUS will have a market capitalization of approximately $440 million -30- For further information: OPTUS Natural Gas Distribution Income Fund, c/o Direct Energy Marketing Limited, Gary J. Drummond, Louis R. Dufresne, (403) 266-6393, (403) 266-6684