DBRS Assigns BB (low) Rating to Quebecor Media Inc.’s $325 Million Senior Notes, Stable Trend

DBRS has today finalized its rating of BB (low) with a Stable trend to Quebecor Media’s (QMI or the Company) new $325 million issuance of Senior Notes (the Notes). The recovery rating on the Notes is RR4.

The final rating is based on information provided by the Company to DBRS as of December 15, 2010. The final ratings confirm that final documentation is consistent with that which DBRS had already reviewed in its preliminary rating press release dated December 13, 2010.

The issuance of Notes consisted of $325 million 7.375% notes for a term of ten years, maturing in January 2021. This debt issuance was priced today for settlement 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 Printing and Publishing and DBRS Rating Methodology for Leveraged Finance, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.