Share price substantial discount to Tuesday’s close
CALGARY — Shaw Communications Inc. is selling its stake in Corus Entertainment Inc. for $548 million.
Under the deal, the cable and telecommunications company will sell 80.63 million class B Corus shares at a price of $6.80 per share through a secondary offering.
Corus shares closed at $8.06 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The sale represents a roughly 38 per cent stake in Corus.
Shaw said the money from the sale will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment of debt.
Corus will not receive any of the proceeds of the sale.
Corus is a Canadian broadcasting company that owns Global Television Network, radio stations, and a portfolio of specialty TV channels including the HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, YTV and Treehouse networks.
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If I worked at any Corus station, I’d be polishing up my resume. There is no question new owners will be making deep cuts to satisfy the new shareholders. Good luck to all Corus employees.
BTW, Corus stock dropped almost 17% today.
I wonder if Pattison Radio Group or Stingray would be interested in any of the radio stations.
Pattison has no stations in the east and it would be great to have some of these well run outlets in Ontario.
Also interesting that Stingray is only 5 or 6 stations behind Bell in terms of the number of radio stations owned. Last week Stingray bought two stations in Welland ON. pending approval. Stingray isn’t heavily involved with tv, not sure if they would be interested in a conventional broadcaster like Global.
Interestingly, although the class B shares were sold as a block (to be resold by mainly TD Bank), the Shawcfamily retains the class A shares and hence effective control of Corus. Bit of an odd situation.