A Canadian investment firm attempting to purchase Torstar Corp. (TSX:TS.B) has raised its bid in response to a rival offer for the media company.
NordStar Capital LP has revised its agreement to purchase the parent company of The Toronto Star and other community newspapers, saying it will now pay $60 million instead of the initially agreed to $52 million. Its new offer of 74 cents per share is a 17.5% increase over its earlier price of 63 cents a share.
NordStar, a firm run by businessmen Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove, intends to take Torstar private. Torstar confirmed earlier this week that it had received a potentially superior second offer, which it said was unsolicited.
In a written statement, Bitove said he and his partners feel they are “best able to ensure a future for world-class journalists and world-class journalism befitting the Star's storied history…This was not an opportunity we were going to let pass," he wrote.
Shareholders will vote on the transaction at a meeting scheduled for July 21. Torstar holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with subsidiaries of The Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse newspapers.
