DBRS Rates Transcontinental’s $500 Million Debt/Preferred Shelf Program BBB (high)/Pfd-3 (high)

DBRS has today assigned a rating of BBB (high) with a Stable trend to Transcontinental Inc.’s (Transcontinental or the Company) unsecured debt program as per its finalized $500 million short-form base shelf prospectus dated September 17, 2009. Additionally, DBRS has assigned a new provisional rating of Pfd-3 (high) to Transcontinental’s preferred share portion of this prospectus.

As per the filing, debentures, notes and other debt issued under this program will be direct unsecured obligations of Transcontinental, will be unsubordinated and will rank pari passu with all other unsecured unsubordinated indebtedness of the Company.

Any preferred securities issued under this program will generally have no voting rights and will be entitled to preferential dividends with features that will be determined before such securities are issued. This rating will only be finalized should the Company issue preferred securities and after DBRS has examined the terms and conditions of such an issue.

As ratings are subject to change, subsequent confirmation of Transcontinental’s ratings will be provided by DBRS as debt and/or preferred securities are issued under this 25-month shelf prospectus.

Notes:
All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodology is Rating Printing and Publishing, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

This is a Corporate (Telecom/Media/Technology) rating.