NAV CANADA announces Montreal protocol support

Airline Industry Information, August 23, 2007

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

NAV CANADA, a private, non-share capital corporation and civil air navigation services provider, has announced its decision to support the purpose of the Montreal ABCP protocol of 16 August 2007 and to provide a noteholder standstill acknowledgement as requested by the signatories of the protocol, in response to the problems affecting the non-bank asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) market.

The company holds around USD368m of non-bank R-1 (high) rated ABCP allocated among its reserve funds and accounts, required by its debt indentures and has about USD130m of cash and cash equivalents not affected by the non-bank ABCP market problems.

NAV CANADA reportedly also has unrestricted access to US565m of a five-year syndicated credit facility with a group of Canadian financial institutions, which it said is presently undrawn and available.

The corporation confirmed it is in compliance with all of its financial covenants at present and claimed, based on current information, it does not expect the problems affecting the ABCP market to have a material, adverse impact on its business or ongoing compliance with financial covenants.

According to NAV CANADA, it is monitoring the ABCP situation closely and will continue discussions with representatives of signatories of the Montreal protocol of 16 August, and others working to resolve the ABCP market problems.

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