Transcontinental Acquires Chenelière Éducation

On August 31, 2006 Transcontinental completed its acquisition of Chenelière Éducation from Perseis Partners, Chenelière's founders and a company controlled by Gaëtan Morin. The aggregate purchase price was $120 million.

Transcontinental is the largest printer in Canada and seventh-largest in North America. Transcontinental is also the country's leading consumer magazine publisher and second-largest community newspaper publisher. Transcontinental is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has more than 14,000 employees in Canada, the United States and Mexico, and reported revenues of $2.2 billion (US$1.9 billion) in 2005.

Chenelière Éducation is a French-language publisher of educational resources and has more than 2,000 authors writing for every level of education. Its catalogues list more than 5,500 titles from well-known names such as Beauchemin, Chenelière Éducation, Chenelière/McGraw-Hill, Gaëtan Morin Éditeur and Graficor. Its publications are used in more than 5,000 French educational and immersion institutions in Canada, and are distributed throughout French-speaking Europe and the United States.

Transcontinental was represented by Christine Desaulniers, its vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, and by in-house attorney Kiriakos Vanikiotis. Perseis Partners and Chenelière's founders were represented by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team that consisted of John W. Leopold, Michel Gélinas, Franziska Ruf, Robert Carelli, Diane Lemelin and Christine Legé (corporate); Robert Hogan, Christian Meighen and Antoine Stébenne (tax); Bruno Barrette (intellectual property); Hélène Bussières and Michel Legendre (employment and benefits); Richard Rusk (environment) and Valérie Mac-Seing (real estate).

Gaëtan Morin was represented by Marchand Melançon Forget with a team that consisted of Pierre Lessard (tax) and Jean Roch Boivin, Serge Boucher and Mathilde Rompré (corporate).