TVA shareholders ask securities regulator to look into Quebecor purchase
A group of shareholders of media company Groupe TVA is suggesting Pierre Karl Péladeau's political ambitions are hurting the company.
The shareholders have asked Quebec's securities regulator to investigate a number of recent transactions involving Groupe TVA and its parent company, Quebecor Media.
Péladeau, a Parti Québécois MNA and party leadership hopeful, is also the majority shareholder of Quebecor, one of Quebec's largest media conglomerates.
One transaction the investors are concerned about is Groupe TVA's recent acquisition of the Vision Globale movie studio.
Péladeau's PQ moves a conflict?
In a news release, the group suggested the purchase was motivated not by good business sense but by Péladeau's political ambitions.
Quebec's ethics commissioner ruled last week that Péladeau broke National Assembly ethics rules when he intervened with Investissement Québec to lobby for the deal.
A spokesperson for the securities regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers, said it will study the request before deciding whether to launch an investigation.
Vision Globale, which bought Mel's Studios in Montreal's Technoparc in 2012, has been the location for all the Hollywood blockbusters in production in Montreal for the past 12 years.
Vision Globale put Mel's Studios up for sale this past summer.
In a statement, Groupe TVA said the allegations from the minority shareholders are without merit.
