Ottawa Income Trust Backout Blamed For E.D. Smith Sellout

The announcement yesterday of the sale to TreeHouse Foods Inc. of Westchester, Ill. came just over six months after E.D. Smith slashed distributions to unitholders, parted company with then president and chief executive officer Michael Burrows and hired Toronto investment bank Genuity Capital Markets to conduct a strategic review. "I would say it's highly unlikely this process would have taken place without the change in the legislation," Bruce Smith, the company's chief financial officer - but not a member of the founding family - said when reached at head office. "It created challenges for us to raise capital and was one of the leading reasons we got into this strategic review process." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070626.REDSMITH26/TPStory/Business

Note: http://www.theglobeandm...