MONTRÉAL – Quebecor is spending $500 million to reduce the share of Quebecor Media held by provincial pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).
The companies said Wednesday that Quebecor has purchased for cancellation 7.27 million common shares of Quebecor Media held by Capital d'Amérique Investissements, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDPQ, amounting to approximately 28.6% of CDPQ's interest. Following the transaction, CDPQ will hold a 18.93% interest (approximately 18.2 million common shares) of Quebecor Media.
Quebecor added that the $500 million cash purchase price will be financed by accessing debt-capital markets.
"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, in the announcement. "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," added CDPQ EVP Christian Dubé. "Following this transaction, we retain a significant stake in Quebecor Media, a company that continues to provide good prospects for value creation."
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2015, it held $240.8 billion in net assets.
