ComediHa! will be able to get their hands on Just for Laughs. The Superior Court of Quebec just approved on Monday the purchase of the group, which was sheltered from its creditors in March.
However, it is a very light version of the producer of humorous content which ends up in the hands of ComediHa!, of which Quebecor is a minority shareholder. The Just for Laughs Group plans to keep only “five to ten” of the hundred employees it had before initiating proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
The company has already “temporarily” laid off three quarters of its employees. Just for Laughs has retained 21 employees, but the new owner wants to fire the majority of them after the transaction, explained yesterday the trustee Christian Bourque of the firm PwC, responsible for the procedures.
The amount of the transaction was not revealed in court, but according to our information, it reached approximately $25 million. The sale is expected to close in the coming days.
It does not include the Just for Laughs head office, on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. Valued at five million dollars by the City of Montreal, it was entrusted to the real estate brokerage firm Colliers.
The trustee also obtained the extension of insolvency procedures until the end of August, time to finalize this transaction.
Big catalog
In essence, Just for Laughs’ assets mainly include “thousands and thousands of contracts” to exploit content. ComediHa!, which was the company’s main competitor in the Quebec comedy market, is taking over all of the company’s activities, including the Montreal festival, which welcomed 1.1 million visitors last year and is on its 42e editing.
The assets also include the Just for Laugh festival in Toronto, the small Zoo Fest festival, but above all the show Les Gags, broadcast in around fifty countries.
More details to come.