BCE Inc. and CGI Group Inc. announced on Thursday plans to extend their current information systems and IT outsourcing agreement.
The original outsourcing plans between BCE’s Bell Canada and CGI consisted of two, 10-year outsourcing agreements dated May 1998 and June 2001. Both these deals have been extended until June 2012 along with an agreement between Bell mobility and CGI dated May 1999.
CGI has also agreed to outsource the management of its telecommunications network to Bell in a network services outsourcing agreement which will expire June 30, 2012.
Also announced on Thursday, BCE entered into a new shareholder’s agreement with CGI regarding the telecom company’s investment in the IT firm.
According to CGI, control of the company will remain with the founders: Serge Godin, Andre Imbeau and Jean Brassard. Under the terms of the new agreement, BCE will own 120,028,400 CGI Class A shares and hold 29.8 per cent of the total equity in CGI. In order for this agreement to begin, BCE will have to convert all of its 7,027,606 CGI Class B multiple shares into CGI Class A single voting shares on a one-for-one basis, said CGI.
Under the new shareholders agreement, BCE is not restricted to sell its CGI shares in the future.
Bell Canada can be found online at www.bell.ca. CGI can be found at www.cgi.com.