National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 41

FP; NATIONAL POST. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28. 2010 financiaIpost.com Apprehensive U.S. companies stashing almost $l-trillion in cash, Moody's says U.S. companies are hoarding nearly $l-trillion in cash that they are unlikely to use for expansion amid a muddled outlook on economic recovery, rating agency Moody's said yesterday.

"Companies will hesitate to spend their cash hoards on expansion until there is greater certainty about the direction of the U.S. economy," said Steven Oman, senior vice-president at Moody's Investors Service. ECONOMY parison, Moody's said, at the end of 2008, companies had of cash. Moody's noted the com A new Moody's study of corporate cash balances found that U.S. companies, excluding financial firms, had about of cash and short-term investments on their balance sheets at mid-year 2010.

The 20 most cash-rich companies had a combined By com panies' apprehension in the face of the weak recovery has contributed to persistently high unemployment. Agence France-Presse I A PRINTING FINANCIAL POST TRANSCON TO CLOSE A PLANT IN QUEBEC PRINT ADS LAG Canadians in our business are great at collaborating across companies Corns profit hit by rising costs CORVS RESTRUCTURING extertaisment CJR.BTSX i Oct 27, close: $22.08 53 DCSpite lOWCr Total volume: 98,011 Q4, dividend revenue MILLION increases 25 $250 $200 $150 TORONTO Canada's Corns $100 Entertainment Inc. reported j5j a 64 drop in quarterly profit, hurt by higher expenses, but 04 2009 Q4 2010 the media company raised NEJ NC0ME its dividend by 25 and said M1LI ON advertising markets were recovering. For the fiscal fourth quarter $15 ended Aug. 31, net income fell J10 to or a share, $5 compared with a year earlier.

The To- Q42009 Q4 2010 ronto-based company said earnings were hit by restruc- EARNINGS PER SHARE turing costs and a radio tariff DILUTED of more than $20-million, or a share. Excluding one-time items, analysts had on average expected earnings of a 1M share, according to Thomson ot Reuters. Q4 2W9 Q4 2010 Revenue for Corus, which source: bloomberg news tit i 1 ANDREW BARH NATIONAL POST owns specialty TV channels such as Movie Central, HBO Canada and Treehouse as well pany paid in the as radio stations, rose 4 to quarter to relocate its head- quarters to Toronto's water- The company said the ad- front vertising market continued to Corus Entertainment, which improve during the quarter, is controlled by Canada's Shaw particularly for its specialty family through its ownership channels. of the majority of Corus' class Still, revenue came in short A voting shares, said its board of the $206-million estimated had approved an increase of on average by analysts. in its annual dividend to For its television unit, a share.

Corus's non-voting "strong specialty advertising class shares closed at $22.08 was offset somewhat by a de- yesterday on the Toronto Stock cline in merchandising and Exchange, other revenues," BMO Capital John Cassaday, president Markets analyst Tim Casey and chief executive of Corus, wrote in a note to clients. said the company is well-pos- Direct cost of sales, general itioned to meet its 2011 guid- and administrative expenses ance of earnings before in- came in at ver- terest, taxation, depreciation sus in the year- and amortization of between ago quarter. $285-million and $295-mil- Interest expenses rose to lion and free cash flow of from $100-million. lion a year ago, while the com- Reuters PETER J. THOMPSON NATIONAL POST Shaw Communications Inc.

president Paul Robertson says programming or channel blackouts caused by failed negotiations are an unlikely scenario in Canada. By Nicolas Van Praet MONTREAL Transcontinental Inc. is closing a Quebec plant that publishes Air Canada's En Route monthly as the commercial printer further cuts output amid a still-tepid environment for print advertising. Its shares rose to a new 52-week high of $15.30 on the Toronto Stock Exchange yesterday. The company will shut the Boucherville, facility on Dec.

17, forcing the layoff of 180 workers and bringing its stable of Canadian printing plants down to 34. All employees will receive severance packages and job placement services to help them find new employment, Transcontinental said. Current printing contracts will be shifted to other plants. "It's a question of reducing overcapacity," Transcontinental spokesman Sylvain Mor- issette said. The recession has accelerated the speed with which advertisers have moved away from the print product and onto online platforms, he said.

And although print publishing is now making a comeback, some revenue in the magazine and catalogue printing business will not return. Transcontinental is shutting the plant to remain competitive in a changing market, company vice-president Jacques Gregoire said. The company has spent more than $700-million over the past five years on new technology across its printing platforms. The Boucherville facility printed Air Canada's in-flight magazine as well as federal gov- The plant had been on artificial life support ernment tax-return forms. One of the reasons that pushed the company's hand was that Canadians are filing their returns online in increasing numbers, the labour group representing Transcontinental workers said.

"Our members are all in shock and so are we," said Serge Berube, president of local 1999 of the Teamsters union. "But some of our members noted that the plant had been on artificial life support for some years now." Plant workers had agreed in the last collective agreement to reorganize their work to strictly limit the number of eventual layoffs subsequent to the implementation of major rationalization measures announced in February 2009, labour leaders said. The union represents 125,000 members of all trades in Canada Transcontinental, the continent's fourth-largest commercial printer, employs 11,000 people in Canada and reported revenue of last year. In its most recent quarter, the company tallied net income of or a share, on the strength of its digital and print platforms and said it was optimistic for coming quarters. Financial Post nvanpraetnationalpost.com TRANSCONTINENTAL INC.

Ticker TCL.aTSX Close $15.30, up 22t Total volume 720,803 Avg. 6-month vol. 228,002 Rank in FP500 136 If there is a dispute, if can be resolved' which has resulted in Fox yanking Major League Playoff broadcasts off the Cablevision system in the northeastern United States. As the dispute has persisted, news outlets have reported angry viewers leaving Cablevision for rival Verizon Communications' Fi-OS television product Mr. Robertson, however, said that is an unlikely scenario here.

"It's never really come to blackouts in Canada. I think the Canadians in our business are great at collaborating across companies, and if there is a dispute, it can be resolved amicably," he said. Still, at hearings into vertical integration next spring before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Telus will ask the regulator to consider implementing new rules such as price audits and quick-response dispute-resolution mechanisms to keep its Western cable rival from being tempted to wield its newfound content against it. Financial Post jasturgeonnationalpost.com SHAW Continued from Page FP1 Telus is concerned that Shaw could use the media assets unfairly against it (or others), such as demanding "anti-competitive" or unrealistic rates for the ability to carry popular channels and shows Shaw now owns. If negotiations fail, program or channel blackouts for Telus's 250,000 or so TV customers could result, simi Astral Media boosted by growth in advertising Net earnings for fourth quarter up 2 TORONTO Astral Media Inc.

posted a 2 rise in net earnings in its fourth quarter, helped by a recovery in advertising markets, the specialty television and radio broadcaster said yesterday. Montreal-based Astral, which operates television, outdoor advertising and radio business units, said net profit rose to or a share, excluding one-off items. Analysts had expected earnings of a share, on revenue of according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue was 9 higher at Astral posted a loss in the same period a year ago when it booked an impairment charge on its radio broadcast licenses. Excluding that charge, the company made a share).

ASTRAL MEDLi ACM.ATSX Oct 27, close: $39.88 53C Total volume: 105,760 REVENUE MILLION $300 $250 $200 $150 $100-. $50 $0 Q4 2009 Q4 2010 NET INCOME MILLION $50 $40 $30 $20 $10 Q4 2009 Q4 2010 EARNINGS PER SHARE DILUTED loot 6 40t 20 Q4 2009 0 2010 SOURCE: BMXJMHKRU NEWS ANDREW BAKH NATIONAL POST It again recorded a radio license-related expense in the quarter to Aug. 31, of for tariff increases retroactive to January 2008. The company's more heavily traded class A shares closed 1.35 higher at $39.88 on the Toronto Stock Exchange shortly after the results were posted yesterday. The stock has risen around 18 this year.

Reuters Sprint takes big intraday drop lar to what U.S. networks and distributors have experienced with growing frequency. "You have to do deals," said Michael Hennessy, Telus's senior vice-president of regulatory affairs. "But you have to ensure those deals aren't anticompetitive." In the United States, the latest spat is between Cable-vision and the Fox network, which is demanding a doubling of fees to in new carriage contracts. Cablevision has refused, work to 20 new markets in the quarter, bringing the total to 56, as it works to lure customers to lucrative two-year data contracts.

The wireless carrier, the third-largest in the United States, takes on some of the cost of a new handset in exchange for the contract "The large take rate of 4G handsets, and the subsidies which come with this, has continued to weigh on margins," said Jennifer Fritzsche, a Wells Fargo Co. analyst in Chicago. She rates Sprint "outperform." The net loss widened to from per share) a year earlier. The results in clude a per share) non-cash charge for an increased tax allowance, Sprint said. Sales rose for the first time since the second quarter of 2007, to from Analysts estimated on average.

Sprint closed or 9.9, lower to $4.30 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest decline since July 2009. The shares have added 17 this year. Sprint lost 107,000 contract subscribers in the quarter, compared with 801,000 a year earlier. Bloomberg News By Greg Bensinger Sprint Nextel Corp. fell the most in more than a year after missing analysts' earnings estimates as the company subsidized the cost of mobile phones for customers using its new wireless network The third-quarter loss was a share, the Overland Park, carrier said yesterday in a statement.

Analysts projected a loss of the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Its shares fell as much as 12, the largest intraday decline since Feb. 10. Sprint expanded its so-called fourth-generation net i.