Madison Dearborn Partners L.L.C. is among a group of investors engineering the $48.5 billion purchase of BCE Inc., Canada’s biggest phone company, in the largest buyout ever.
Madison Dearborn Partners will get a 9% stake, valued at about $4.4 billion, as it chalks up its third multi-billion-dollar deal in little more than a month. The company is spending down its $6.5 billion fund even as it plans to raise another $10 billion this year for a new fund.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which had a 6.3% stake in BCE, led the purchasing consortium and will have a 52% stake in the company, according to a BCE statement issued Saturday. Providence Equity Partners Inc., based in Rhode Island, will have a 32% stake, while other Canadian investors will get 7%.
The group beat out several other bidders including New York-based Cerberus Capital Management LP with billionaire Hong Kong-based Canadian citizen Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with backing from American buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Telus Corp.-Canada’s second largest telecom-pulled out of the bidding last Tuesday for Bell Canada parent BCE Inc., Canada’s biggest telecom company.
But Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told the Globe and Mail newspaper his Vancouver-based company hasn’t ruled out taking a run at Bell Canada.
“It’s been a hallmark of our company that we do not close doors,” Entwistle said, without signaling which way he was leaning. “We keep our options open and this is no exception.”
Ann Saphir is a reporter with Crain’s Chicago Business, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
