Westsun left in lurch after firm tanked

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/08/2009 (5903 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHEN Livent went under in 1999, it marked the beginning of the end for a very successful Winnipeg sound and lighting company.

During Livent’s heyday, Winnipeg-based Westsun International was supplying the Toronto theatrical production company with about $50 million worth of sound and lighting equipment for three different versions of Ragtime, two touring shows of Phantom of the Opera including one in Tel Aviv, three different productions of Show Boat and a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

It was its association with Livent that had helped transformed Westsun from a regional equipment leasing company — it got its start supplying equipment for the Winnipeg Folk Festival — to one of the largest companies of its kind in North America.

But when Livent went into receivership in 1999, it started closing down shows and reneged on its equipment leases with Westsun. That dumped millions of dollars worth of equipment back in Westsun’s lap — equipment that it had borrowed heavily to buy and that it couldn’t find a use for.

Three years later, Westsun was also in receivership, and in a 2008 interview, the company’s former owner and CEO, Marc Raymond, blamed the Livent fiasco for Westsun’s demise.

"There is no question in my mind had Livent not failed, Westsun would be thriving today," Raymond said.

But it wasn’t just Raymond that got stung by the failure of Livent. Westsun’s largest shareholder was the Crocus Investment Fund. Crocus subsequently became essentially the sole owner of Westsun, and after Westsun was placed into receivership, Crocus wrote off its $20.9-million stake in the firm. It was the single largest write-off the investment fund made before it, too, failed.

That left some wondering if it might also have suffered a different fate were it not for the demise of Livent.