Quebecor Completes Offering of Exchangeable Debentures

Quebecor Inc. completed two transactions on June 19, 2001, to monetize the value of its holding of approximately 48.4 million common shares of Abitibi-Consolidated. The first transaction was a private placement with Canadian institutional investors of $554,884,277 principal amount Quebecor exchangeable debentures. These have a term of 25 years and are exchangeable, at either the holder’s or Quebecor’s option, for an aggregate of approximately 44.8 million Abitibi-Consolidated common shares. Concurrently with this private placement, Quebecor sold four million common shares of Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. for gross proceeds of $49.52 million. The purchase of the debentures and of the common shares was arranged by TD Securities Inc. The proceeds to Quebecor Inc. of these transactions were applied in part to repay the remaining indebtedness that arose from the acquisition by Quebecor Inc. of Le Groupe Vidéotron Limitée.

Ogilvy Renault represented Quebecor Inc. in the transactions with a team consisting of Marc Lacourcière, Solomon Sananes and Steve Kelly (corporate/securities) and Christian Sioufi and Martin Thériault (banking). Stikeman Elliott represented TD Securities Inc. with a team consisting of André Roy and Anthony Penhale (corporate/securities), Sterling Dietze (banking), Jean Fontaine (banking and insolvency) and Luc Bernier (tax).