Ending a painfully controversial dispute that has cost the demise of top-end jobs and reputations, Cinar Corp. and Globe-X Management have finally come to an agreement on the payment schedule for the remaining us$50.9 million still owed by the Nassau-based investment firm.

Under the terms of the agreement, Globe-x will issue the Montreal-based animator weekly payments between now and Aug. 17, 2001 and Cinar will withdraw legal proceedings, which it launched in the Bahamas last March and put on hold early in the summer when negotiations resumed with Globe-x.

‘This is a very good step toward our financial statements. Globe-x, the tax credits issue and the audit, everything was linked,’ says Louise Sansregret, Cinar vp, investor relations and public affairs. ‘We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.’

Early in the year, it was discovered that $122 million of Cinar money was invested with Globe-x without Cinar board approval. The company had initially retrieved us$46 million from Globe-x and since then bits and pieces, leaving the outstanding debt, according to Cinar, at us$62 million.

The most current payment agreement of us$50.9 million is, therefore, roughly $12 million short, keeping the two companies in a tail-end dispute.

In November 1999, Globe-x paid Cinar $12 million, which it claims is part of its reimbursement, but Cinar accountants are still reviewing whether or not it should be counted as such, says Sansregret. *