BCE closes its Astral buy

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $42.55 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $33.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.5%; www.bce.ca) has completed its $3.2-billion purchase of Astral Media. Astral owns 22 TV stations, 84 radio stations and several pay TV and specialty channels, such as the Movie Network, Family Channel and Teletoon. To win approval for the takeover, BCE agreed to sell several of Astral’s specialty TV channels and radio stations. Still, the new operations should immediately add to the company’s earnings. BCE is a buy. buy…