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The benefit of a weaker currency is beginning to spread through corporate Canada.

Companies such as CGI Group Inc. and DHX Media Ltd., which sell services abroad designed by workers in Canada, are emerging as big winners from the currency’s almost 30 per cent decline in the past three years. Forestry, autos and manufacturing are also getting a lift as they win market share with cheaper products.

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“The drop in the Canadian dollar means that if you find a U.S. company that will move their work to Quebec, just on the currency alone, they are going to get a 30 per cent discount,” CGI’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Roach said in a phone interview last week. The CEO is on the prowl to lure more U.S. work to its Quebec operations along with a major acquisition. “We see this as an opportunity.”

Shares of CGI, which gets almost one-third of its sales in the U.S., surged to a record after reporting better than forecast fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 27. The company generated $1.3 billion in cash in the past 12 months, and Chairman Serge Godin said in the same interview the Montreal-based company could spend as much as $8 billion in cash on a deal.