Montreal: Former Cinar Corp. directors Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg have hired Desjardins Securities to review purchase offers for their 64% controlling shares in the company. Extended efforts to sell the company under former CEO Barrie Usher were not successful.

In November, the Quebec Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York approved a US$25-million class-action suit settlement with current and former shareholders, to be paid by Cinar and Ernst & Young, the company’s former auditors.

Robert Chapman of California-based fund manager Chapman Capital LLC sharply criticized the shareholder settlement in a Dec. 13 letter to Cinar chairman Robert Despres, claiming the agreement represents ‘a cash outlay exceeding more than one half of Cinar’s current market capitalization.’ Chap-Cap holds over 2.65 million class B shares in Cinar. Charest holds 2.4 million shares and Weinberg holds 2.6 million.

In other news, Cinar has announced that its June 21 suspension from access to the full range of Telefilm Canada support and financing programs was lifted on Nov. 21.

Cinar reported net income for the first nine months of fiscal ’02 of $12.7 million, or $0.31 a share, on consolidated revenues of $102.6 million, including $79.5 million from the educational division and $23.1 million from the entertainment division.