MONTREAL – BCE announced the closing of its bought deal common share offering announced last month, including the full exercise of the over-allotment option.
The syndicate of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets, together with CIBC World Markets, National Bank Financial and TD Securities, fully exercised the over-allotment option to purchase an additional 1,971,000 BCE common shares at the offering price of $57.10 per share. Including the exercise of the over-allotment option, BCE sold an aggregate of 15,111,000 common shares for total gross proceeds of $862.84 million.
The company said last month that the net proceeds of the offering will be used for general corporate purposes including reducing financial leverage.
"We are very pleased with the investment community's positive response to our equity offering, the first by BCE since 2002," said BCE and Bell Canada CFO Glen LeBlanc, in the news release. "The base equity offering of $750 million and the exercise of the 15% over-allotment option generated more than $862 million in gross proceeds, supporting debt reduction and the maintenance of a healthy balance sheet."
