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SGF and Solidarity Fund QFC invest $55 Million in Aeterna
Montréal, April 9, 2002 - Société Générale de Financement du Québec (SGF) and Solidarity Fund QFC announce an investment of $55,000,000 in Aeterna Laboratories Inc. (Aeterna).
SGF, via its subsidiary SGF Santé, subscribed today to 4,000,000 subordinate voting shares of Aeterna accompanied by warrants to acquire 2,000,000 subordinate voting shares at a price of $13.00 per share until March 31, 2003 and warrants to acquire 2,000,000 subordinate voting shares at a price of $20.00 per share until December 31, 2003 or if certain conditions have not been met at that time, $13.00 until December 31, 2006. The foregoing securities were purchased for an aggregate consideration of $30,000,000.
Solidarity Fund QFC subscribed today to 3,333,3334 subordinate voting shares of Aeterna accompanied by warrants to acquire 1,666,667 subordinate voting shares at a price of $13.00 per share until March 31, 2003 and warrants to acquire 1,666,667 subordinate voting shares at a price of $20.00 per share until December 31, 2003 or if certain conditions have not been met at that time, $13.00 until December 31, 2006. The foregoing securities were purchased for an aggregate consideration of $25,000,000.
SGF holds, via its subsidiary SGF Santé, following the investment, 4,000,000 subordinate voting shares of Aeterna representing approximately 11.24% of the currently outstanding subordinate voting shares, or 20.20% assuming only the exercise of the warrants held by SGF. Solidarity Fund QFC holds, following the investment, 4,996,525 subordinate voting shares of Aeterna representing approximately 14.04% of the currently outstanding subordinate voting shares, or 21.40% assuming only the exercise of the warrants held by Solidarity Fund QFC. The subordinate voting shares and warrants have been acquired by each of SGF and Solidarity Fund QFC under the terms of a private placement for investment purposes. In addition, SGF has entered into an agreement with Mr. Éric Dupont under which Mr. Dupont has agreed to vote in favour of a representative of SGF and a representative designated jointly by SGF and Mr. Dupont to the board of directors of Aeterna and not to vote in favour of certain significant events affecting Aeterna without the prior written consent of SGF. Solidarity Fund QFC has also entered into an agreement with Mr. Dupont under which Mr. Dupont has agreed not to vote in favour of the change of the head office and principal place of business of Aeterna outside the Province of Quebec without the prior consent of Solidarity Fund QFC. Solidarity Fund QFC is also party to an agreement with Mr. Dupont under which Mr. Dupont has agreed to vote in favour of a representative of Solidarity Fund QFC to the board of directors of Aeterna.
The mission of SGF is to implement economic development projects in cooperation with partners and under normal profitability conditions. Since its reorganization in 1998, SGF has generated investments of over $4.4 billion, and created over 19,400 direct and indirect jobs through projects that reached the operational phase, in addition to the thousands of jobs created during construction. As of September 30, 2001, SGF’s consolidated assets totalled over $2.8 billion; SGF has 57 international partners that operate businesses in Quebec.
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Source :
Sylvie Brousseau
SGF
Communication
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