DBRS Assigns BB (low) Rating to Quebecor Media Inc.’s Senior Notes, Stable Trend

DBRS has today assigned a provisional rating of BB (low) with a Stable trend to Quebecor Media’s (QMI or the Company) new issuance of Senior Notes (the Notes). The recovery rating on the notes is RR4.

The provisional rating is based on QMI’s preliminary Offering Memorandum and information provided by the Company to DBRS as of December 10, 2010. The assignment of final ratings is subject to receipt by DBRS of final documentation that is consistent with that which DBRS has already reviewed.

The issuance of Senior Notes is expected to be approximately $250 million for a term of ten years, maturing in 2021. This debt issuance was recently initiated by QMI and is to be priced on or around December 15, 2010, and settle on or around January 5, 2011. The Notes, which will reference a trust indenture to be dated on close, will be general unsecured senior obligations of QMI and rank pari passu with its existing and future senior unsecured indebtedness. The Notes will be subordinated to all of QMI’s secured indebtedness.

DBRS expects QMI to use the proceeds from this issue to effect a contribution of a similar amount to Sun Media Inc., which intends to use the proceeds to finance the redemption and retirement of all outstanding Sun Media notes, on or around February 15, 2011, and to finance the settlement and termination of related hedging contracts.

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

The applicable methodologies are Rating Publishing & Media and DBRS Rating Methodology for Leveraged Finance, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.