TORONTO – Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will support Corus Entertainment’s bid to buy Shaw Media for $2.65 billion.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), CPPIB’s support represents a potential blow to efforts by Catalyst Capital Group Inc. to block the deal, noting the pension fund’s influential voice in Canadian markets given its size and the emphasis it places on good corporate governance.
CPPIB didn’t provide a reason for its decision and a spokesperson declined to elaborate, continues the report.
CPPIB owned 610,000 Corus Class B shares as of March 31, 2015, according to the latest data available from FactSet, ranking the pension fund among Corus’s 20 biggest holders of the Class B shares. Catalyst owns 321,800 Class B shares, according to a filing with the Ontario Securities Commission.
Under terms of the transaction, Corus needs support from more than half of the votes cast by holders of the company’s Class A voting and Class B non voting shares. With Shaw Communications and Corus controlled by Alberta’s Shaw family, the family’s holdings in Corus aren’t counted as part of the shareholder vote to approve the transaction.
Corus' shareholder meeting is set for Wednesday. Catalyst, though, has asked the Ontario Securities Commission to correct what it claims are “misleading disclosure defects” about the transaction before the meeting proceeds.
According to the Globe and Mail, however, the OSC rejected Catalyst's bid to delay the vote.
