Quebecor World Exits Bankrupty With a Familiar Name

Quebecor World went back to the future today, emerging from bankruptcy protection under the new but old name "World Color Press".

World Color Press and Quebecor Printing merged a decade ago to form Quebecor World. The company is changing its name to distinguish itself from its former parent, Quebecor Inc., a Canadian media company whose stake in the old Quebecor World is now worthless.

The new World Color Press is now owned mostly by the former lenders and other creditors of Quebecor World. The largest stockholders are Societe Generale, a Montreal-based bank, and Catalyst Fund Limited Partnership of Toronto. With the emergence from bankruptcy reorganization, a new board of directors chaired by Mark A. Angelson -- former CEO of printing rival R.R. Donnelley -- is now setting the company's direction.

The company's announcement said it obtained $800 million in exit financing, about two-thirds of which was used to pay off the special debtor-in-possession financing that kept it going while in Chapter 11. It also said World Color Press stock should begin trading on the Toronto exchange within 30 days.

Quebecor World had originally chosen "Novink" as its new name, but a QW official confirmed to Dead Tree Edition on Sunday that it dropped that name because of negative customer feedback. "Novink" appears in the names of many World Color Press subsidiaries. For example, the legal name of Quebecor World Logistics is now Novink Logistics LLC, though I suspect "World Color" rather than "Novink" will be used in the branding of the subsidiaries.