Telecoms and DTH giant Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has formally commenced its offer to purchase all the issued and outstanding common shares of fibre operator Bell Aliant.
BCE announced in late July that it had agreed a deal to buy out the public…
Telecoms and DTH giant Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has formally commenced its offer to purchase all the issued and outstanding common shares of fibre operator Bell Aliant.
BCE announced in late July that it had agreed a deal to buy out the public shareholders in Bell Alliant for around C$3.95bn (US$3.68bn) and then take the company private. BCE owns 44% of Bell Alliant but exercises managing control of the business.
BCE is offering shareholders a choice between C$31 in cash for each of their shares, 0.6371 of a Bell share, and C$7.75 in cash and 0.4778 of a Bell share.
Bell’s offer values Aliant at 8.3x LTM EBITDA and represents an 11.6% premium on Aliant’s 20-day volume weighted average price of C$27.78.
Concurrent with the common share offer, BCE also initiated its offer to exchange all preferred shares of Bell Aliant Preferred Equity Inc. (Prefco) for newly-issued preferred shares of BCE, with the same financial terms.
BCE said it will fund the cash portion of the consideration using available sources of liquidity, and will issue up to 61 million new common shares for the equity component.
Both offers will expire on 19 September unless extended or withdrawn by BCE.
Having obtained competition act clearance for the privatisation on 5 August, BCE has now met all the regulatory conditions required to complete the offer.
Founded in 1999, Aliant operates throughout Eastern Canada offering broadband, fixed-line telephony and IPTV services.
