Canada: Quebec state investment fund to take controlling stake in McInnis

The Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec has agreed to plans to inject an additional CAD250m (US$193m) into McInnis’s Port-Daniel integrated plant project under a deal which sees the state investment fund take a controlling interest in Beaudier Ciment, McInnis’s majority shareholder.

Reuters quotes a spokesperson for the Caisse as stating that the project faced cost overruns of up to CAD500m (US$386m) and for this reason the fund had insisted on a "change of control and a change in management”.

The new plans will see the Caisse invest CAD125m (US$96m) which will be matched by the same amount from BlackRock Alternative Investors. The injection of fresh funds will give the Caisse a controlling interest in Beaudier Ciment, appointing seven out of 11 seats on its board.

Last week saw McInnis’s CEO, Christian Gagnon, step down amid the company’s failure to control costs on the project to build a new 2.2Mta plant.