No trust spinoff seen for Sun Media

Quebecor Media Inc. is not interested in following the lead of CanWest Global Communications Corp. by turning its Sun Media Corp. newspaper group into an income trust, its chief operating officer says.

Speaking at a BMO Nesbitt Burns investor conference yesterday, Pierre Francoeur said Quebecor is "not contemplating that kind of avenue for Sun Media."

Last week, Winnipeg-based CanWest launched its long-awaited trust, a spin-off of about 28 per cent of its newspaper group (except for the National Post), which will bring in about $620-million in cash and another $830-million from a debt offering.

There would be no favourable tax consequences for Montreal-based Quebecor in spinning off a newspaper trust, Mr. Francoeur said, although he did not elaborate.

Mr. Francoeur said, however, that Quebecor does want to expand its businesses in English Canada beyond its chain of newspapers, the Sun-TV television station in Toronto and the Canoe Web portal. "For sure, we're in an acquisition mode," he said, although any acquisitions would likely be in television, since it doesn't appear that newspaper properties will be available in the near future.

The company has no preference between conventional television or specialty channels for expansion, he said. "If the business case is good . . . we'll look at it." Still, he added, "we will not pay top dollar just [to get a] presence in the English side of the country."

He said Sun-TV, until recently called Toronto 1, will not break even for at least another year. The company has high hopes for cross-promotional opportunities between the station and the Toronto Sun newspaper.

All the newspapers in the Sun chain should benefit from a return of NHL hockey this year, Mr. Francoeur said.

"Imagine you are a McDonald's and you are selling burgers and for a year you don't have any burgers to sell. You will not attract vegetarians overnight. It was almost the same for us [since we had] sports papers without any hockey."