Quebecor Inc. says it’s ready and able to move ahead with plans that would bring a National Hockey League team to Quebec City.
The Montreal-based company slipped comments into its quarterly earnings report, showing that it will turn more attention to pursuing an NHL team this year.
A statement from president and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said Quebecor now has “all the tools it needs to pursue its goals” of managing an arena and bringing an NHL team to the city.
Quebecor has been working to bring an NHL team back to the provincial capital for months, after it won the naming rights for a new hockey arena.
Also Thursday, Quebecor reported that profits grew 83% in the fourth quarter led by strength in its telecommunications division.
The company posted net income attributable to shareholders of $85.4 million, or $1.34 per share. That marks an increase from $46.6 million, or 70 cents per share.
Adjusted income from continuing operations declined to $55.6 million in the fourth quarter, or 87 cents per share, falling short of analyst expectations for 89 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
A year earlier, in the fourth quarter of 2010, adjusted profits were higher at $58.2 million, or 90 cents a share.
Revenues were $1.15 billion for the period, a gain of $59.8 million from the same quarter of 2010.
Quebecor had already announced that profits in its Videotron division rose by 69% in the quarter. The provider of cable TV, Internet and wireless services posted earnings of $161.9 million on Tuesday, up from $96 million a year earlier.
But TVA Group Inc., a subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., has reported lower profits for the last three months of 2011 on specialty channel losses.
The television and magazine company has said its net income in the fourth quarter was $11.5 million, or 48 cents per share, down from $19.3 million, or 81 cents per share a year earlier.
Quebecor Media subsidiary Sun Media Corp. has announced it plans to launch four new weekly newspapers in Ottawa, Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph, Ont., reaching more than 400,000 homes in Ontario.
