BCE.PR.R FixedFloater – None Converted to Ratchet

BCE Inc. has announced:

that none of its Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series R (Series R Preferred Shares) will be converted into Cumulative Redeemable First Preferred Shares, Series Q (Series Q Preferred Shares).

On October 12, 2010, BCE notified holders of Series R Preferred Shares that they could elect to convert their shares into Series Q Preferred Shares subject to the terms and conditions attached to those shares. Only 71,965 of BCE’s 8,000,000 Series R Preferred Shares were surrendered for conversion into Series Q Preferred Shares. As this would result in there being less than one million Series Q Preferred Shares outstanding, no Series R Preferred Shares will, as per the terms and conditions attached to those shares, be converted on December 1, 2010 into Series Q Preferred Shares. Shareholders who had elected to convert their Series R Preferred Shares will be receiving, by December 1, 2010, share certificates representing the number of shares surrendered for conversion.

The Series R Preferred Shares will continue to be listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BCE.PR.R. The Series R Preferred Shares will pay on a quarterly basis, for the five-year period beginning on December 1, 2010, as and when declared by the Board of Directors of BCE, a fixed dividend based on an annual dividend rate of 4.490%.

BCE.PR.R was last mentioned on PrefBlog when the dividend reset to 4.49% was announced. BCE.PR.R is tracked by HIMIPref™ but is relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns.

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