National Post excluded from offering

whose spin- off will be the biggest income trust IPO since Yellow Pages Income Fund raised $ 1 billion in 2003, said it expects to receive about $ 1.45 billion in proceeds through the initial public offering and bank debt raised at the income fund, which it will use to reduce debt. The 12 biggest newspapers to be included in the trust have combined daily circulation of 1.1 million, or about 30 per cent of the English- language Canadian newspaper market, according to CanWest’s sale prospectus. The Vancouver Sun

is the largest with a daily paid circulation of 182,663, followed by the The Province of Vancouver ( 153,856) and The Gazette of Montreal ( 143,569).

It’s unclear what the spin- off means for the relationship between the Post, CanWest’s Global TV, and the papers included in the income trust. In the past, CanWest’s daily newspapers have typically included a spate of unpaid ads promoting the Post and Global, a former CanWest executive said. If the ads had been sold at market rates, the newspapers would have likely generated at least several millions of dollars, the official said. CanWest said its publication unit recorded net income of $ 33.9 million in the 12 months ended August 2004, up from $8 million for the comparable period a year earlier. The publishing division in 2004 posted sales of $ 1.1 billion, up $ 25,000 from the prior year. The income trust group would have had cash available for distribution to shareholders of $ 198.5 million for the 12 months to May, the documents said. The prospectus doesn’t include an expected yield for the units but will likely be priced in coming weeks. The $ 1.45 billion raised by CanWest will include roughly $830 million in new credit lines. The balance of about $620 million will be in equity.