Teaming up with Rogers

Article Excerpt

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES $32.61 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $2.1 billion; SI Rating: Average) plans to team up with Rogers Communications to build and operate a new high-speed wireless network in Manitoba. Manitoba Telecom now has 60% of Manitoba’s wireless market, and this arrangement with Rogers will let it offer more services and types of phones to its cellular customers. The company will also be able to use Rogers’ existing network to sell more wireless services to its business customers outside of Manitoba. This saves Manitoba Telecom from having to build its own national wireless network. The company’s share of the new high-speed network is $70 million. To put that figure in context, Manitoba Telecom earned $144 million, or $2.23 a share, in 2008. Manitoba Telecom is a buy. buy…