The Société générale de financement du Québec is to buy out Toronto-based equity player EdgeStone Capital Partners as the minority partner in Alliance Films, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Monday.

Last September, Toronto-based EdgeStone emerged from the wings to run Alliance Films on behalf of Goldman Sachs & Co. so that the U.S. investment bank would not breach Canadian foreign ownership rules following its purchase, with Canwest, of broadcaster/distributor Alliance Atlantis.

As part of that agreement, Victor Loewy rejoined the Canadian distributor as executive chairman, former Miramax executive Charles Layton became president and Xavier Marchand returned to the former Motion Picture Distribution LP as president of international distribution.

But barely four months later, EdgeStone is to sell its 49% stake in Alliance Films to SGF — which invests in Quebec film on behalf of that province’s government — for up to $100 million.

Goldman Sachs will retain the remaining 51% controlling stake in the movie distributor, which releases films in Canada, Britain and Spain.

Executives at Alliance Films and EdgeStone did not return calls on Monday.

But it’s understood that SGF is preferred by Goldman Sachs, as the Quebec-based equity investor brings access to new capital and connections in the French-speaking province where Alliance Films runs the profitable Vivafilm subsidiary and has expertise in film financing.

Last August, around the time EdgeStone was inking its deal with Goldman Sachs for Alliance Films, SGF struck a $400-million slate financing deal with Lionsgate to cover up to 35% of the Vancouver-based producer’s production costs on TV and film projects shot in Quebec over a four-year period.

EdgeStone, by contrast, invests more in brick-and-mortar companies, including waste-management firms and window makers.

The Globe and Mail cited sources that indicate the announcement on the deal for SGF to replace EdgeStone as Alliance Films’ minority investor will be made this week.

Also Monday, Goldman Sachs closed a separate deal with CBS that will see the U.S. network assume the worldwide distribution rights to the CSI franchise.

The international rights to all three CSI TV crime series were previously handled by Alliance Atlantis Communications, before the Canadian producer was taken over by Goldman Sachs and Canwest.