Quebecor Media and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) announced today that they have agreed on the partial purchase of CDPQ’s interest in Quebecor Media.

Quebecor Media has purchased for cancellation 7,268,324 common shares of Quebecor Media held by Capital d’Amérique Investissements, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDPQ, amounting to approximately 28.6% of CDPQ’s interest prior to closing, for a purchase price of $500 million, to be paid in cash. Quebecor Media intends to finance the transaction by accessing debt-capital markets.

Following the transaction, CDPQ holds 18,170,810 common shares of Quebecor Media, a 18.93% interest.

This transaction continues the process announced in October 2012, when we introduced a plan to purchase the shares of Quebecor Media held by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Ownership of all the shares of Quebecor Media by Quebecor remains our long-term goal.This transaction will be financed in accordance with our basic objective of maintaining sound balance sheet management.

We are continuing to rebalance our portfolio, a process we started in 2012, explained Christian Dubé, Executive Vice-President, Québec of CDPQ. Following this transaction, we retain a significant stake in Quebecor Media, a company that continues to provide good prospects for value creation.