By the time all the paperwork is done, Michael MacMillan will, in effect, be the sole controlling shareholder of Alliance Atlantis Communications by 2005 – holding sway over more than half of the voting stock of the $900-million company, according to documents filed recently with the Ontario Securities Commission.

The balance of power has switched at AAC following the December departure of top execs Peter Sussman and Seaton McLean who have shared control of the Toronto media giant with MacMillan, its chairman and CEO, and distribution president Ted Riley through their private company Stampco Holdings.

Each of the four held some 581,000 class A shares through Stampco, and owned another 74,000 shares directly.

McLean and Sussman, who exited AAC on Dec. 31, converted their 74,000 shares to non-voting, class B stock in January, and have agreed to change their remaining shares in February 2005, in keeping with an agreement the four struck some 10 years ago.

‘The point of changing their shares to non-voting… is the control of the company isn’t going to wander off into somebody else’s hands,’ says MacMillan.

According to CRTC regulations, Riley cannot vote his shares because he lives in Ireland. MacMillan votes for him.

Stampco owns 2.4 million, roughly 77%, of the outstanding class A shares in AAC; 2.1 million of which are held by its subsidiary Atcan Investments.

McLean and Sussman announced their departures in December when AAC slashed its production wing late last year, laying off 70 staff and closing offices in Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton and London. It is possible they may continue to work with Alliance as third-party producers, according to MacMillan.

AAC A and B stocks on the TSE have hovered above the $20 mark for the past six months, dipping slightly after the layoffs but rebounding to $22 in the new year.

-www.allianceatlantis.com