Quebecor and World Colour

On August 20, 1999, Montreal-based Quebecor Printing Inc. announced the successful completion of its tender offer to acquire up to 23. 5 million shares of the common stock of Connecticut-based World Colour Press, Inc. Quebecor will now proceed with the second step in the merger which is to acquire all of the remaining shares. The acquisition is valued at approximately U. S. $2. 7 bn. The combined company, to be known as Quebecor World Inc. , is now the largest commercial printer in the world.

On behalf of Quebecor various aspects of the transactions were handled by the Montreal office of Ogilvy Renault with other aspects being dealt with by Montreal’s Martineau Walker. Ogilvy Renault acted as acquisition counsel with the Ogilvy team being comprised of Norman M. Steinberg (corporate / securities), Renaud Coulombe (corporate / securities), and Jules Charette (tax). Martineau Walker acted as financing counsel on the structuring and implementation of the U. S. $1. 25 bn. credit facility, as well as handling adjustments to an existing U.S. $1 bn. credit facility. The Martineau team was comprised of Robert Paré and Philippe David on corporate, securities and tax matters and Claude Gendron and Lise Rochette on financing matters. U. S. counsel for Quebecor was Arnold & Porter. U. S. counsel for World Colour was Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.