MONTREAL – Telesat’s IPO may not go.
Bell Canada Enterprises CEO Michael Sabia said this morning that while the company is still pursuing, as planned, an initial public offering on the satellite operator, it is also analyzing purchase bids from other companies.
This is a different message than the one the company has officially been sending out for months. Rumors have swirled all summer and fall that Bell may sell Telesat rather than spin a part off in an IPO.
"We’ve received a great many expressions of interest on the part of other satellite companies," as well as investors’ groups, Sabia said this morning during the conference call to discuss Bell Canada’s conversion to an income trust.
However, with Telesat’s new CEO, Daniel Goldberg, now in place, the process now is "to move the company down both of those paths," added Sabia, looking at continuing with the IPO or a sale of the company.
Telesat, of course, still has to abide by Canadian ownership guidelines whereby control has to rest with a Canadian entity.
– Greg O’Brien
