MONTREAL — Canuck film and TV company Alliance Atlantis Communications announced Friday a public share offering in the U.S. and Canada for 8 million class-B nonvoting shares at a price of C$17.30 ($11.30) for net proceeds of approximately of $86 million.
The Toronto-based company said the proceeds will be used to repay indebtedness under its revolving credit facility and to help finance the launch of its seven new digital specialty channels due later this fall. Closing of the offering is set to take place Wednesday.
Some shareholders in Canada have been grumbling about Alliance Atlantis’ efforts to interest U.S. investors, saying the dilution of the company’s stock has hurt the stock price in Canada.
Alliance Atlantis’ nonvoting B-shares on the Toronto stock exchange were trading Friday at $11.30, down from a 52-week high of $17.92.
Merrill Lynch is the lead manager of the underwriting group with Goldman Sachs as co-lead manager and RBC Dominion Securities and TD Securities (USA) as co-managers.
