BCE revises Astral bid

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $46.60 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.4 million; Market cap: $36.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.bce.ca) has restructured its $3.4-billion deal to buy Astral Media (Toronto symbols ACM.A and ACM.B). Montreal-based Astral owns 22 TV stations, 84 radio stations and several pay TV and specialty channels. It also owns billboards and sells other outdoor advertising. In November 2012, the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected the takeover, as the purchase would have given BCE an overwhelming share of Canada’s English-language TV market. BCE has now agreed to sell six of Astral’s specialty TV channels and two Ottawa radio stations to Corus Entertainment (Toronto symbol CJR.B) for $400.6 million. Following these sales, BCE will control 35.7% of the Englishlanguage TV market, up 2.0% from its current share. It will also have 23.0% of the Frenchlanguage TV market, which is still well below its main competitor’s 30.5% share. Canada’s competition bureau has already approved the…