UPDATE 2-Canwest approves C$1.1 bln bid from noteholders

TORONTO, May 10 (Reuters) - Canwest Global Communications Corp, Canada's biggest media company, said on Monday it accepted a C$1.1 billion takeover bid from a group of creditors led by one of the nation's top media personalities.

Canwest said the bid was for assets including 46 community and daily newspapers and the National Post, and will eventually see the new company listed as an entity on the stock market.

It has no plans to close any of the papers.

The bid came from members of an ad hoc committee (AHC) comprised of holders of 9.25 percent senior subordinated notes and led by Paul Godfrey, the current president of the National Post, who was also the former CEO of Quebecor's Sun Media chain.

Godfrey will be named president and chief executive officer of the new company.

Canwest won creditor protection for its newspaper group in January as it crumpled under the weight of a debt load of nearly C$4 billion.

'The AHC Bid contemplates the acquisition of substantially all of the financial and operating assets of the LP Entities and the shares of National Post Inc for an effective purchase price of approximately C$1.1 billion including C$950 million in cash funding,' Canwest said in a statement.

'The proceeds from the AHC Bid will allow for a full pay-out of the approximately $925 million debt owed by the LP Entities to its senior secured lenders.'

Some of Canwest's debt is tied to its purchase of newspapers from Hollinger International in 2000 for C$3.2 billion.

A number of consortiums expressed interest in acquiring the newspapers, even after they were battered by recession and competition from the Internet.

Among those who submitted bids was Torstar Corp, publisher of Canada's biggest daily, the Toronto Star.

Canwest said the bid on Monday also provides unsecured creditors with cash or shares on a pro rata basis up to 45 percent of the equity in the new company

($1=1.023 Canadian Dollar)

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando in New York and Pav Jordan in Toronto; Editing by Lincoln Feast) Keywords: CANWEST/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.