SNC SNC Lavalin Group Inc

MONTREAL, Feb. 11, 2011 /CNW/ -- MONTREAL, Feb. 11, 2011 /CNW Telbec/ - SNC-Lavalin, which currently holds an indirect 76.92% ownership interest in Calgary-based AltaLink L.P., announced today that it will acquire the remaining interest in the limited partnership pursuant to an offer received from Macquarie Essential Assets Partnership (MEAP) for $213 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, including approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission. The offer was presented on January 20, 2011 in response to a binding offer received by MEAP from a third party pursuant to a right of first refusal held by SNC-Lavalin to acquire MEAP's 23.08% ownership interest in AltaLink. "AltaLink is a core investment for SNC-Lavalin. It has a proven track record, and we trust it will continue to provide excellent services to the people of Alberta," said Gilles Laramée, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. "SNC-Lavalin has been working in Alberta for nearly 40 years and has a strong presence with over 2,000 employees based in the province, including our global centres of excellence for Transmission and Distribution, and Chemicals and Petroleum, which are both based in Calgary." AltaLink is Canada's only fully independent transmission company, and is responsible for the maintenance and operation of approximately 11,800 kilometres of transmission lines and 270 substations in Alberta. It owns more than half of Alberta's transmission grid and serves 85 per cent of its population.  SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure, and in the provision of operations and maintenance services. SNC-Lavalin has offices across Canada and in over 35 other countries around the world, and is currently working in some 100 countries. In business since 1911, the Company celebrates its 100(th) anniversary in 2011. www.snclavalin.com. To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/February2011/11/c9942.html table border="1" cellspacing="0" class="cnwBorderedTable"tr valign="top"td align="left" valign="top"Media/td td align="left" valign="top"Investors/td/tr tr valign="top"td align="left" valign="top"Leslie Quintonbr/ Vice-President, Global Corporate Communicationsbr/ SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. br/ 514-393-8000, ext. 7354br/ a text-decoration="underline" href="mailto:leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com"leslie.quinton@snclavalin.com/a/td td align="left" valign="top"Denis Jasminbr/ Vice-President, Investor Relationsbr/ SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.br/ 514-393-8000, ext. 7553br/ a href="mailto:denis.jasmin@snclavalin.com"denis.jasmin@snclavalin.com/a/td/tr/table

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