Canada’s Shaw reaches deal to buy Goldman Sachs stake in Canadian TV assets

Shaw buys Goldman’s stake in Canwest

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Canadian cable and satellite provider Shaw Communications is paying $700 million to buy the 65 percent stake of Canada’s second-largest private television network that’s owned by Goldman Sachs.

Canwest Global Communications has been restructuring its broadcasting and publishing business under protection from creditors since October.

The deal between Calgary, Alberta-based Shaw and the New York investment bank clears the way for Shaw to buy all of the television division of a restructured Canwest for about $2 billion including the assumption of more than $800 million of debt.

Shaw has said it wants only Canwest’s television and specialty cable TV properties. It will get 11 local TV stations across Canada and a group of specialty channels, including Showcase, History Television and the Food Network Canada.

Canwest’s newspaper and publishing assets are up for sale under a separate process. The owner of the Toronto Star, Torstar, confirmed it has submitted a bid for those assets. It is only one of a number of groups known to be interested in the newspapers.