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Teachers says it will make a bid for Bell Canada
Reuters
Published: Monday, June 25 2007VANCOUVER -- The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan said on Monday it plans to submit a bid for Bell Canada Inc., Canada's biggest telecommunications company.
"We do plan to make a bid. We are committed to building a real, successful, national telecommunications company in Canada," Teachers' spokeswoman Debra Hanna said.
Hanna declined to give further details of the planned bid by Teachers', which has teamed up with U.S. private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.
Teachers' and two other buyout consortiums have spent the last few weeks looking at BCE's data and considering whether to make a bid.
Last week BCE telecoms rival Telus Corp. confirmed it too had entered talks to acquire the parent of Bell Canada.
Media reports and analysts have speculated that the deadline for bids is this week, and as early as 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
Hanna said Teachers', which manages $106-billion (US$99-billion) in pension money for working and retired teachers in Ontario, would not make public its bid when it is handed to BCE. "It would be up to BCE," she said.
