Canadian communications group Quebecor Media (TSX:QBR.A) has bought part of the stake owned by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) for C$500m (US$379m) in cash, with a view to…
Canadian communications group Quebecor Media (TSX:QBR.A) has bought part of the stake owned by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) for C$500m (US$379m) in cash, with a view to owning all of its shares in the long term. Following the transaction, CDPQ has reduced its ownership in the group from 28.6% to 18.93%.
Quebecor Media, which stated that it would finance the acquisition via the debt market, bought 7,268,324 common shares held by Capital d’Amérique Investissements, leaving institutional investor CDPQ with 18,170,810 common shares.
“This transaction continues the process announced in October 2012, when we introduced a plan to purchase the shares of Quebecor Media held by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec,” said Quebecor CFO Jean-François Pruneau. “Ownership of all the shares of Quebecor Media by Quebecor remains our long-term goal. This transaction will be financed in accordance with our basic objective of maintaining sound balance sheet management.”
“We are continuing to rebalance our portfolio, a process we started in 2012,” explained Christian Dubé, executive vice-president, Québec, at CDPQ. “Following this transaction, we retain a significant stake in Quebecor Media, a company that continues to provide good prospects for value creation.”
Quebecor, a conglomerate providing telecommunications, entertainment, news media and other services, now holds an 81.07% interest in Quebecor Media, has a staff of some 12,000. Its businesses include cableco Videotron, which held exploratory takeover talks with Wind Mobile, its CEO Pierre Dion said last November. The company had voiced interest in consolidating the country’s smaller cellcos, if the government pressed ahead with reforming roaming regulations, thus enabling affordable nationwide coverage.
Canada’s mobile market is dominated by Bell, Telus and Rogers Communications, which are challenged by minnows Wind Mobile, Manitoba Telecom, SaskTel Mobility, Shaw and Videotron Wireless. Mobilicity, another small player, is to be taken over by Rogers in a C$440m deal. Regulators approved the transaction in June, on the basis that certain spectrum would be sold on to other smaller players.
