It seems like everyone wants a piece of Cirque du Soleil and the competition to win a slice continues. In these two articles, Guy Laliberte weighs in on his intentions to buy the company back, and Quebec itself offers a no-strings-attached bailout if the primary stakeholders want to walk. But can both of those things be true? Only time and future reports will tell…

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte says he wants to buy back the internationally celebrated circus company he created more than 35 years ago.

Laliberte, who sold his remaining shares in the famed circus last February, told a popular television show Sunday night he wants to put an ownership team together and buy the company back.

“Today, I took the decision to embark on the purchasing process,” he said on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle. The circus, however, owes more than $1.25 billion to creditors and has been shut down since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laliberte said the circus company he created in 1984 “gave me so much and if I can help, we’ll be there…”

Read the Full Article at eBOSS Canada

MONTREAL, May 26 (Reuters) – Cirque du Soleil, its spotlight dimmed by the coronavirus pandemic, will receive $200 million in aid from Canada’s Quebec province, an official said on Tuesday, as part of broader efforts to revive and keep the hard-hit international entertainment group based in Montreal.

Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said the province has an agreement in principle that would give it the option to buy a majority stake in Cirque if shareholders TPG and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd decide to pull out.

The heavily indebted Cirque was exploring bankruptcy protection in March and laid off almost all of its staff after social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic forced it to cancel shows.

“The arrangement is that when the following shareholders, namely Fosun, the Chinese partner and TPG want to sell, we want the option to buy,” Fitzgibbon told reporters in Quebec City.

“Of course at that point we’ll figure out if someone else wants to manage it. It’s not the intent of the Minister of Economy to manage the Cirque du Soleil, I can assure you of that. At the same time, I want the control on who’s going to buy. Because if you don’t have that clause, TPG or whoever else could sell to whomever.”…

Read the Full Article at Thomson Reuters Foundation News