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Almost exactly five years after the onset of the credit crisis in Canada, the company at the centre of the asset-backed commercial paper fiasco is winding up and handing millions in cash to shareholders.

Coventree Inc. said Tuesday evening that after distributing $3.20 a share in assets to shareholders in May, there is still another 83 cents a share of "assets in liquidation" left to go, meaning shareholders are going to get more than $4 for every piece of Coventree stock they held.

Coventree's shares, which have since stopped trading, became a hot commodity among some hedge funds as they saw that the firm would have significant assets and the stock was trading at a discount.

The firm was behind much of the asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) that froze when the credit crisis hit Canada in the summer of 2007. ABCP was supposed to be safe, short-term paper that paid yield. However, when the market seized, the paper could not be redeemed, and years of restructuring and litigation ensued. ABCP holders eventually received new paper that will pay them back, but not for years.

Meantime, Coventree and two of its principals (and largest shareholders) paid significant penalties to regulators.

However, as reported in Streetwise earlier this year, the payments to regulators are more than covered by the cash and assets coming out of Coventree.

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