Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Gains Insitutional Support for BCE Buyout Bid

The Globe and Mail reports that several institutional shareholders of BCE (BCE) have told the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan they would support its effort to buy the company -- if the purchase price is roughly C$40 a share.

These institutions reportedly own more than a third of BCE:

Some of these major shareholders said any bid in this range will almost certainly have their backing, given BCE's weak stock performance and mounting impatience with the company's turnaround efforts under chief executive officer Michael Sabia.

"There's nothing formal going around yet, but it could be building toward that," confirmed another person close to the process.

You and I can't expect these people to negotiate in public. And we can't be sure of how much -- or how little -- is going on behind the scenes.

Yet reading all the recent reporting of this story gives the feeling BCE management and board are resisting any potential buyout. And perhaps taking steps to win over shareholders in any fight:

BCE is widely expected to announce an aggressive share buyback of up to 15 per cent of its outstanding shares, likely when it releases quarterly financial results on May 2. Sources close to the board and Mr. Sabia say the company is also exploring a range of other options to push up the share price and quiet critics.

Those options probably include increasing shareholder payouts, among other things.

Like I said about Nikko Cordial (NIKOY.PK) and the Citigroup (C) story, things are feeling fluid with BCE.

Further to the BCE story, according to Canada's Financial Post Canaccord Adams analyst David Lambert says the company could make a C$12-billion takeover bid for Shaw Communications as a potential defense against any buyout:

Despite Rogers’ better financial positioning for a possible bid for Shaw, Mr. Lambert thinks BCE’s ability to make a cash offer would help it win such a battle. This hypothetical cash and stock deal, would see BCE assume $3-billion of Shaw’s debt. He also sees both revenue and costs synergies, as well as $275-million in tax savings. Meanwhile, Mr. Lambert projects a deal could give BCE a wireless market share boost from less than 10% to more than 33% in Western Canada.