Astral Acquires the Family Channel from Corus

On March 8, 2001, Astral Media Inc. entered into an agreement with Corus Entertainment Inc., pursuant to which Astral will purchase Corus’s 50 per cent interest in The Family Channel and its 20 per cent interest in Teletoon Canada Inc. for $126.9 million. Upon completion of the acquisition, which is subject to CRTC approval, Astral Media will become the sole shareholder of The Family Channel and a 40 per cent shareholder of Teletoon.

Concurrently with this acquisition, Astral Media announced an equity offering of $100,110,000. On March 27, 2001, Astral completed an offering in Canada of 2,130,000 Class A non-voting shares of Astral, which were priced at $47 each. The issue was underwritten on a bought deal basis by a syndicate of underwriters led by Scotia Capital Inc.

Sidney Horn and Jean Farley (corporate), Anthony Penhale and Nadia Jubinville (securities) of Stikeman Elliott’s Montreal office and Monique Ryan, Astral’s vice-president of legal affairs, represented Astral Media. Warren Katz of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP’s Toronto office and Sheldon Teicher, Corus’s vice-president of corporate development, represented Corus. Norman Steinberg, Steve Malas and Marguerite Goraczko of Ogilvy Renault’s Montreal office represented the underwriting syndicate.