The Cirque du Soleil production company, which produces most of the top long-running shows on the Las Vegas Strip, has been thrown a lifeline by its home province of Quebec, Canada.
Quebec has offered the troupe, which has been idle as casino resorts and all other entertainment venues have been shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a loan of up to $200 million under the province’s Investissement Quebec program.
As a provision of the loan, Pierre Fitzgibbon, the province’s economy minister, announced that the Quebec government will accept the option to buy Cirque if the company decides to sell. Cirque would then be under Quebec ownership, though Fitzgibbon said the provincial government has no desire to run the company, and that the loan is hoped to negate that necessity.
“The Cirque has a need for financial aid to allow it to be relaunched,” the minister said prepared remarks, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The current shareholders have a plan to relaunch the Cirque and they came to see us. We said, ‘Yes, we’re going to help you but here are the conditions.’ … The most important thing is we are relaunching the Cirque with Quebecers in positions of power, with the intellectual property here.
“The Cirque is too important for Quebec to let it be bought by a foreign company that will then move the head office out of Quebec.”
“We welcome today’s announcement, which is part of the company’s recapitalization process,” said a statement from Cirque. “The strong interest shown by the consortium formed by Investissement Québec and our current shareholders is further evidence of the strength of our brand and the importance of preserving the Québec heritage of Cirque du Soleil.”
