Montreal: Motion International has sold its Studio Centre-Ville unit to Groupe Covitec and signed a sidebar agreement guaranteeing ‘preferred supplier’ status to Covitec, Quebec’s largest technical service company.

With the deal, Covitec controls seven soundproofed Montreal soundstages including three at Studio Lasalle (a coventure with Moli-Flex White), including a 14,000-square-foot studio, two Television Quatre Saisons studios outsourced last summer to Covitec, and the two new Centre-Ville studios. Centre-Ville has a 2,000-square-foot studio used primarily for specialty tv program production, and a second 3,200-square-foot studio typically used to film tv commercials.

Centre-Ville manager Alain Marcil will report to Studio Lasalle gm Daniel Martineau, says Covitec president Claude Gagnon.

Gagnon would not reveal the value of the deal with Motion but says the preferred status agreement includes a guarantee clause in the contract.

The company offers a complete range of film and tv post-production services at three different units (Supersuite, AstralTech and Sonolab), film laboratory services, digital film-to-tape transfer, sound and dubbing, 2D animation coloring, studios and video equipment rental and a small video duplication service.

Covitec employs 450 and is currently in new contract negotiations with unions representing many of its technicians.

Astral Communications holds 63% of the shares in publicly traded Covitec (listed on the me under ctk). Gagnon says annual sales are in the $60-million to $65-million range.