PrefBlog

DBRS has announced:

Since DBRS’s latest report on Bell Canada, Industry Canada has restated its intention of establishing four wireless carriers in each region of the country. DBRS notes that a viable fourth competitor with strong financial backing could cause the competitive environment to intensify. DBRS believes the potential implications of increased competition for the Company’s operating performance and equity valuations could make less-conservative financial management more compelling for Bell Canada. In DBRS’s view, the addition of a strong fourth bidder in the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction could materially increase the price for spectrum. These factors could make it more difficult for Bell Canada to reach its intended leverage target within DBRS’s stated 24-month timeframe. DBRS notes that failure by Bell Canada to deleverage as expected could result in a negative rating action.

Furthermore, DBRS feels that a strong fourth industry player could heighten competition such that even more conservative financial management may be required for BCE Inc./Bell Canada’s credit risk profile to remain commensurate with its current rating categories. DBRS will continue to carefully monitor the operating performance and financial management of Bell Canada, particularly in the context of an evolving competitive environment.

BCE has a large number of preferred share issues outstanding:
Ratchet Rate: BCE.PR.B, BCE.PR.D, BCE.PR.E, BCE.PR.H, BCE.PR.J, BCE.PR.S and BCE.PR.Y
FixedFloater: BCE.PR.A, BCE.PR.C, BCE.PR.F, BCE.PR.G, BCE.PR.I, BCE.PR.R, BCE.PR.T and BCE.PR.Z
FixedReset: BCE.PR.K

All are tracked by HIMIPref™; all are consigned to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 20th, 2013 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Issue Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.