Power Corp. ready to invest more than $10B in expansion

Plan is to focus on U.S. as it sells some assets

MONTREAL• Power Corp. is prepared to invest more than $10 billion over the next five years to expand its empire while it also looks to sell some assets and exit the newspaper business, the holding company’s co-CEOs said Friday.

“We have a capacity in the coming five years to put capital exceeding $10 billion at work to play a consolidation game and to play the game in the big leagues,” Paul Desmarais Jr. said at a news conference after its annual meeting.

He said the sum will be larger when including money to be invested by subsidiaries like Power Financial.

A key area of focus is the U.S. pension fund business that is expected to undergo consolidation. Currently, it owns Putnam Investments, acquired in 2007.

“It’s a very fragmented business and we will have an opportunity to be one of the big consolidators in this industry.”

Desmarais added that the large Canadian holding company — which has assets around the world including a large stake in China Asset Management Co. — is examining some of its capital intensive businesses to see if they can be sold at attractive prices.

Co-CEO and brother, Andre Desmarais, added that insurer Great-West Life and fund manager IGM Financial are not on the sales block.

Desmarais said he expects other Canadian newspaper owners will take a hard look at its decision to transform its Montreal La Presse news group into a not-for-profit structure.

The 130-year-old newspaper is owned by Square Victoria Communications Group, a subsidiary of Power, which plans to grant $50 million to the venture.

Under the new structure, Power Corp. would no longer own the media company or have any ties with the not-for-profit structure.

“I think it makes a lot of sense and I think it makes sense for English Canada as much as it does for Quebec,” he told reporters.

Desmarais noted that all news media outlets are grappling with the rise of digital competitors such as Google and Facebook, and will have to figure out how to proceed.

“Everyone will have their why now moment and probably a public company will have a why now moment a lot faster than a private company.”

Part of the shift in La Presse’s ownership structure is designed to allow it to get donations and funding from government, which is unfeasible as long as it is owned by one of Canada’s richest families.

“If I was in government I wouldn’t give a subsidy to the Desmarais family. It would be misinterpreted,” he said.

But André Desmarais said he’s optimistic that the federal government, which is studying funding for national newspapers, will end up providing funding because it would want to help a medium that supports democracy.

He noted that the CBC gets about $1 billion a year, but just for the broadcast medium.