‘Our focus is on the long-term viability of the business’

The two men behind the entity seeking to buy Torstar Corp., one of Canada’s biggest media companies, are no strangers to thinking boldly.

Jordan Bitove is one of the key members of the group that launched the Toronto Raptors basketball team and Paul Rivett is a former president of Fairfax Financial Holdings, one of the biggest global insurance and investing firms in Canada.

Together they are looking to purchase all of Torstar, including the Toronto Star, the most widely read print newspaper in the country.

NordStar Capital, an entity the men control, announced Tuesday it has entered into an agreement with Torstar to acquire all of Torstar. The deal is subject to shareholder approval.

Who are Bitove and Rivett? And why do they want to buy Torstar?

Bitove is a second-generation

Canadian and runs a private equity and real estate group in Toronto. Coming from one of Canada’s great nation-building families, he contributed significantly to the start-up of the Toronto Raptors, the first NBA franchise awarded outside of the United States and Canadian Olympic bids.

He and his family were part of the initial ownership group that conceived and started construction of the Air Canada Centre, now Scotiabank Arena. In 1986, his family were part of ownership consortium to build SkyDome, the world’s first fully retractable roofed stadium. In 1978 the family opened the first Hard Rock Cafe in North America in Toronto.

Rivett recently retired as the President of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited after 17 years with the company. Fairfax is a global insurance and value investing focused company based in Toronto. Mr. Rivett remains on the Board of Directors of certain Fairfax investees, including Chairman of Recipe Unlimited.

Prior to joining Fairfax, Paul Rivett worked at Blake Cassels & Graydon and Sherman & Sterling.

“I share a great deal of excitement about this acquisition, not only because of the history and brand behind the Toronto Star and other Torstar assets, but because of the constructive discussions that we’ve had with (Torstar president) John Boynton and (Torstar chair) John Honderich.”

The men say the time is right to buy the company.

“Our focus is on the long-term viability of the business,” they said in joint comments. “Anything we do on the cost-structure side of Torstar will be done to ensure a strong and sustainable newspaper business for years to come.

“The opportunity is the largest circulation news brands in Canada with a rich and storied history. With patient capital we think we can build something that’s very special.”

They added that the “harsh realities of the news media business are ill-suited to the quarter-bound short-term focus of shareholders.

“High-quality journalism is not cheap. We have the patience and willingness to invest in Torstar’s long-term transformation to ensure a future for world-class journalists and world-class journalism.

“There’s no question it’s been a difficult time for Torstar, but the need for reliable journalism has never been greater. We see unrealized value in the company’s current model that requires an investment in longterm transformation. This type of approach is simply not feasible in the current quarterbound model, so we intend to take the company private and invest in a future for worldclass journalists and journalism.”