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The only winner for life … Guy Laliberté!

How lucky is Guy Laliberté! In April 2015, he pocketed a fortune of US $ 1.5 billion by selling 90% of Cirque du Soleil to the consortium made up of the American fund TPG, the Chinese fund Fosun and the Caisse de dépôt et placement.

And less than five years later, last February, the founder of Cirque managed to sell at a high price his remaining 10% block of Cirque to the Caisse, and this, just before the financial collapse of the company as a result. the cancellation of all of its shows due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For its part, the Caisse, it is really picpic!

Imagine that on February 14, she acquired Guy Laliberté’s 10% block at a higher price than the amount paid in 2015 to acquire her initial 10% stake in Cirque du Soleil.

Testifying to the Finance Committee, the CEO of the Caisse, Charles Émond, revealed that the Caisse had finally paid the founder of the Cirque in February the tidy sum of US $ 75 million (C $ 100 million) to acquire his stake in 10%.

When the Caisse acquired Cirque’s share capital in April 2015, it had disbursed the sum of US $ 71 million (CA $ 82 million at the time) to get its hands on its first 10% block of Cirque. , alongside its partners TPG (with 55% of the shareholding) and Fosun, with 25%.

NO REMORDS …

Although he completely wrote off the $ 228 million in assets that the Caisse held in the Cirque, Charles Émond believes that the Caisse still made a good investment when it acquired Guy’s 10% block in February. Freedom.

In light of the information available in February, he said the transaction was made at a reasonable price given … the profitability of Cirque. For him, paying $ 100 million for the 10% of Guy Laliberté was justified by the fact that the Circus showed in his eyes a good cash flow.

During his testimony yesterday before the Finance Committee, Charles Émond tried to convince opposition MPs (André Fortin from the PLQ, Vincent Marissal from Québec Solidaire and Martin Ouellet from the PQ) that this transaction to purchase the participation of Laliberté would allow the Caisse to consolidate its position in the Cirque shareholding, while giving it more power in order to protect the Cirque in the event of a sale by its partners.

Eh yes ! Émond asserted that it was not only Guy Laliberté who was seeking to liquidate his participation in the Cirque, one and the other of the partners were also talking about it, it seems.

WHERE WAS THE EMERGENCY?

To justify the transaction to buy Guy Laliberté’s 10% block in Cirque du Soleil, Charles Émond said it was impossible at the time (in February) to predict the coronavirus pandemic and its dramatic consequences on the Cirque du Soleil.

That Cirque du Soleil had decided to cancel the performances of its show in China as of January 23 (three weeks before the transaction to purchase Laliberté’s participation) was not in his eyes an important factor.

Yet Cirque du Soleil itself spoke of the coronavirus epidemic.

As proof, the title of its press release of January 23, 2020: “Cirque du Soleil cancels the performances of” Cirque du Soleil A fantastic world“In Hangzhou in China, due to the coronavirus epidemic”.

“Right now, we all have a responsibility to step up our prevention efforts. The health and safety of people is at the top of our priorities, ”said Daniel Lamarre, President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Group.

Between December 1, 2019 and the day before the purchase transaction for Laliberté shares on February 14, 2020, the coronavirus was spreading more and more across the planet.

Never mind, the Caisse did not see sufficient reason to postpone the transaction until later, in order to give itself additional time to see how quickly the coronavirus epidemic would spread and what would be the consequences.

Where was the urgency for the Caisse to get its hands on Guy Laliberté’s remaining participation in the Circus when the CEO of the Cirque was already talking about an epidemic?

Obviously there was none!

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