EdgeStone, Goldman buying stake in Motion Picture Distribution
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | 4:16 PM ET
CBC News
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Units of Movie Distribution Income Fund rose more than nine per cent on Tuesday after Toronto-based EdgeStone Capital Partners said it's teaming up with Goldman Sachs & Co. to buy the fund's stake in Motion Picture Distribution LP for about $193 million.
Units of the fund — which owns 49 per cent of Motion Picture, a Canadian film distributor — gained 84 cents to finish at $9.99 on the TSX.
EdgeStone, a Canadian private equity firm, and GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co., will pay the equivalent of $10 per unit to get the fund's stake in Motion Picture. After the sale, the fund will redeem all of its outstanding units on the TSX.
EdgeStone will control the business while GS Capital will hold an equity stake.
"We are entirely committed to ensuring that Motion Picture Distribution continues to play its important cultural role in Canada, to ensuring an experienced and dedicated management team, and to strengthening the company," EdgeStone partner Sandra Cowan said in a release.
Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. owns the remaining 51 per cent stake in Motion Picture.
The EdgeStone sale means the end of a court fight between the fund and Alliance Atlantis. After CanWest Global and Goldman Sachs unveiled a $2.3-billion takeover bid for Alliance Atlantis in January, the fund launched a legal challenge to the deal, saying it should be entitled to a say.
The fund said Tuesday it will give its consent for the eventual transfer of Alliance Atlantis's stake in Motion Picture to EdgeStone and Goldman Sachs.
"We are pleased by the announcement made today by EdgeStone and the trustees of Movie Distribution Income Fund," said David Lazzarato, executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Alliance Atlantis.
He said the company is looking ahead to a court fairness hearing on Thursday, adding that the CanWest-Goldman Sachs deal is expected to be finished in early August.
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