Postmedia Network Canada Corp. says it has filed a preliminary prospectus with regulators as it prepares to list its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The media organization – which owns 11 English-language daily newspapers such as the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen – said Tuesday it had filed a preliminary non-offering prospectus with securities regulators in all provinces expect Quebec.
The company’s CEO Paul Godfrey had given an Aug. 1 deadline for a stock listing as part of its strategy when it bought the print and online assets of insolvent Canwest in a $1.1-billion deal last year.
“As we’ve said all along, we intend to list shares by July and today we submitted our application to list on the TSX,” said Phyllise Gelfand, a spokeswoman for the company.
She added that Postmedia has no immediate plans to make an initial public offering, which is the usual course when stocks begin trading on the TSX.
“We are happy with the capital structure of the company and are not looking to issue new shares at this time,” she said.
That means that average investors wouldn’t be able to buy into the company until one of the current shareholders decides to start trading.
Postmedia’s filing will be considered by regulators to ensure it meets listing requirements before the company can appear on the TSX.
Details of the prospectus will be made public Wednesday, but because there will be no IPO, share price and other details won’t be made available.
Postmedia, backed by a New York hedge fund, bought the newspapers from Canwest last year as part of the court-supervised restructuring of Canwest Global.
The company has cut about 500 full-time jobs, or roughly 9% of its workforce, as part of the restructuring.
As of Sept. 13, Postmedia had nearly 3.8 million voting shares outstanding and 36.6 million variable voting shares outstanding. However, the stock isn’t listed for trading on a public stock market.
