MANITOBA TELECOM $30.63 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 77.4 million; Market cap: $2.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.mts.ca) jumped to just over $33 in response to BCE’s plan to buy 100% of Bell Aliant (see box on page 57). Investors believed Manitoba Telecom could also become a takeover target.
However, as part of the company’s 1997 privatization, the Manitoba government limits any single shareholder’s ownership to 20%. The shares have since moved down to where they were before BCE’s announcement.
Manitoba Telecom is still a hold.