Strategic Telecommunication and Call Centre Alliance

On February 6, 2001, the Confédération des caisses populaires et d’économie du Québec (Confédération), Bell Canada (Bell) and Connexim, Limited Partnership (Connexim) announced the completion of their strategic alliance with respect to telecommunication and call centre services. Under the terms of the alliance, the Confédération entered into a service agreement with Bell under which Bell and Connexim are to render telecommunications and call centre services to the Confédération and the other entities of the Mouvement Desjardins. The Confédération also transferred to Connexim its telecommunication and call centre assets, as well as approximately 250 employees. The service agreement has a term of seven years and a value of approximately $400 million. In addition, the Confédération and Bell will collaborate on business and e-commerce developments through numerous initiatives.

Representing the Confédération was a team of lawyers from Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast comprised of André Vautour, Marc Beauchemin, Jacques Lemieux and Véronik Bonneville-Pesant, who worked closely with Réjean Blaquière, in-house counsel at the Confédération. Bell was represented by Odin Larocque and Jean-François Legault from Bell’s legal department and by a team from Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP comprised of Mathilde Carrière, Louis Clément, François Brais and Karine Charest. Connexim was represented by Jean-Jacques Goulet, its in-house legal counsel.