TORONTO – While an Ontario Superior Court judge on Friday gave Shaw Communications the green light to move ahead with its plan for CanWest Global, other companies have come forward to say, “hey, we would have liked to get in on the bidding, too.”
However, companies which wanted to take a close look at the troubled broadcaster and newspaper publisher had to first sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevented them from even talking to Goldman Sachs, which is the key creditor as the 65% equity holder of CW Media Holdings, the division which owns and operates CanWest’s specialty channels.
Canwest and Goldman put together a unique deal back in 2007 when CanWest purchased Alliance Atlantis which calls for CanWest to eventually roll its conventional broadcast assets into a new company in the 2011-2012 time frame, at which time GS will exit the investment.
Those channels, by the way, (Showcase, History, TVTropolis, HGTV, Slice and a number of others) provide the primary value of CanWest.
However, in a letter to the court appointed monitor dated Friday, Quebecor Media said it would have liked a chance to make a move but it “declined to exercise the proposed Non-Disclosure Agreement… as it would have precluded Quebecor Media from having discussions notably with Goldman Sachs and related entities which we viewed as a key stakeholder,” reads the letter signed by Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau.
“Despite this inextricable situation, the senior management of Quebecor Media… has devoted significant efforts in the past weeks with its financial and legal advisors to structure a consensual transaction with a predictable timing and lower execution risk.
“Should the court re-order the current solicitation process and allow third party bidding in a transparent court supervised process, Quebecor Media is prepared to consider an alternative proposal in a timely manner,” concludes Péladeau’s letter.
A spokesman with knowledge of the situation told Cartt.ca that Rogers Communications was also interested in putting a bid together but did not want to sign the NDA and that the team of Catalyst, Rael Merson and John Tory is still interested in proceeding, should the Shaw deal hit snags.
Stay tuned on this one as the bid the court accepted, Shaw’s, has 19 conditions still attached to it (including CRTC approval) before the big western cableco can proceed with claiming CanWest.
– Greg O’Brien
