With no end in sight to Canadian financial market turmoil, E1 Entertainment has pulled plans to secure a Toronto Stock Exchange listing and will instead weigh its options.

Toronto-based E1 said the launch of a strategic review by a board committee to boost shareholder value will not include selling or spinning-off assets, including those recently acquired on the filmed entertainment side.

As E1 gets set to release its year-end results to March 31, the company said it will record a one-time, mostly non-cash charge to restructure E1 Music, its U.S. CD music distribution business, with the loss of around 25 jobs at facilities in New York.

E1 CEO Darren Throop told Playback Daily the move was taken in reaction to a continuing slide in physical CD sales and a shift to digital sales of music tracks.

E1 is also looking to boost a sagging share price on London’s AIM exchange, which rose 28% to 27 pence ($0.49) on Monday on news of the strategic review, but which remains well down from a 52-week high of 103 pence ($1.88).

Throop insisted weakness in the U.S. music market was not reflected in E1’s North American DVD distribution business, as it has not been impacted to the same degree as CD sales by digital piracy, or is subject to the unbundling of content. He said recent holiday trading of DVDs and other filmed entertainment product was in line with management expectations.

He reaffirmed E1’s outlook for the full year to March 31 as within the range of market estimates. Throop said his optimism was fuelled by the recent successful theatrical release by E1 of Summit Entertainment’s Twilight in Canada and the U.K., and a pipeline of movies and TV programs set for release over 2009.

That said, cold feet in tough times has led E1 to pull plans to re-establish itself on the TSX.

The company in September abandoned a reverse takeover of DHX Media, which was meant to secure a return to the TSX. E1 had earlier delisted itself from the Canadian financial exchange as an income fund.

Despite a need to regain visibility for E1 among Canadian investors, Throop said a steadily worsening Canadian IPO market meant now was not the time to secure a direct listing on the TSX, as earlier planned.