TORONTO - Telus Corp. is urging competition regulators to speed up the review of its bid for Bell Canada Inc. so it does not lose out to competing offers from private-equity players.
Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle, who came to Toronto yesterday to sell the potential merger of Canada's two largest phone companies, said all competing offers should be judged on the same timeline so that no bidder has an advantage.
"In a world where private equity can get a deal of this magnitude done in a matter of weeks, I don't think it is an appropriate situation where we're waiting for a seven-month ruling from the Competition Bureau," he said. "All I'm asking for is, 'Could I please have equality or parity of timeline in terms of approval?' "
Any takeover of Bell Canada would require regulatory approval, but industry observers say a private-equity deal could pass muster more easily because it would be a straightforward change in ownership that would not decrease competition. A merger with Vancouver-based Telus, however, would be more complicated because it would raise competition concerns in wireless and business services, where there would be one less national player.
The Competition Bureau has rated a Bell-Telus merger as "complex," meaning a review could take up to 10 weeks. Bell is expected to decide on a winning bid, if any, by the fall when it releases the results of a strategic review.
Competition advocates warned against regulators speeding up the review process. While Telus's bid shouldn't be disadvantaged, the Competition Bureau isn't known for taking too long in its reviews, said James Milway, executive director of the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity.
"You don't want the regulator to get it wrong," he said. "People like to complain about how slow they are, but it's like saying you were late for a meeting because you were stuck in traffic. Well, you should have left earlier."
Bids for Montreal-based Bell, formerly BCE Inc., are due by 9 a.m. ET today. At least four offers are expected, with the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan yesterday confirming the consortium it is leading will be lodging a bid.
Two other consortia, led respectively by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, are also expected to make offers, although the CPP-led bid appeared to be facing 11th-hour obstacles.
Mr. Entwistle said Telus's board of directors was to meet last night to determine what the company's bid would be.
A sale of Bell Canada is likely to see a total price tag upward of $45-billion.
Mr. Entwistle said he did not want a repeat of Telus's thwarted purchase of Microcell Telecommunications, which ended up being bought by Rogers Communications Inc. in 2004. Telus had a deal set and was waiting on approval from the Competition Bureau, but lost out when Rogers swooped in to acquire the struggling wireless provider because it had fewer regulatory hurdles to clear.
"We lost Microcell bidding against Rogers waiting for a ruling, and the ruling turned out to be in our favour," he said. "It was irrelevant because Ted [Rogers] had already made the move to buy the company. That's a very real possibility [with Bell]."
