Canada’s biggest telephone company, BCE Inc., seems headed for a bidding war between two teams of Canadian investors, one including New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the other including Providence Equity Partners.
Providence Equity expects to take part in bidding by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a person familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg News. The teachers’ plan, already BCE’s biggest investor, yesterday announced it was considering a takeover offer.
KKR would be a minority partner in bidding by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which yesterday said they had begun takeover talks with BCE. “We’re focused on getting a deeper understanding of the business and the opportunities to unlock value,” said CPP spokesman Ian Dale.
Any transaction would have to ensure “the company remains Canadian, to meet existing foreign ownership restrictions,” BCE said in a statement. Canadian law sets a 46.7-percent limit on foreign ownership of any domestic phone company. The Montreal-based telephone company, founded in 1880, has a market value of about $27 billion ($31 billion Canadian).
