Telus has announced:
that it has elected not to submit an offer to acquire BCE as part of the strategic review process announced by BCE on April 17, 2007. The inadequacies of BCE’s bid process did not make it possible for TELUS to submit an offer.
… which could be mere posturing in order to get BCE to change their bid process, a reflection of regulatory problems … who knows? Pick your talking head, pick your explanation.
Ten year bonds for both companies widened 20bp on the news, perhaps reflecting the idea that now both will become LBO targets in shareholder-friendly ( = bondholder-hostile) events. But we will see!
I continue to think that BCE prefs are a crapshoot on credit right now and don’t want anything to do with them! There are, as yet, no words of wisdom from the ratings agencies.
BCE has the following preferred shares outstanding: BCE.PR.A, BCE.PR.C, BCE.PR.E, BCE.PR.F, BCE.PR.G, BCE.PR.H, BCE.PR.I, BCE.PR.R, BCE.PR.S, BCE.PR.T, BCE.PR.Y & BCE.PR.Z
[…] BCE issues were very disappointed to learn that Telus doesn’t want BCE and lost back much of their recent gains. Predict this, predict that, no information … what a life, eh? I’ll stick to analyzing cash-flows. […]
[…] The noted BCE/Teachers deal may be expected to boost the market price of BCE preferreds considerably when markets re-open on July 3 – and MAPF doesn’t hold any! Such is life … as I’ve noted before, in the absence of good information about a deal (and remember, preferred shareholders haven’t actually seen any Teachers’ money yet) BCE preferreds are just a crapshoot on credit … and MAPF doesn’t play craps! The underlying philosophy of the fund continues to be that investment-grade preferred shares are bundles of cash-flows trading at fluctuating prices and that money can be made by weighing these bundles of cash-flows to determine value based on reliable public information and trading to exploit inefficiencies – not by taking a wild guess and hoping to strike the jackpot. […]