What to do with Bell Aliant

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $48 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 778.3 million; Market cap: $37.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has agreed to pay $3.95 billion in cash and stock for the 56% of BELL ALIANT INC. $31 (Toronto symbol BA; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $7.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.6; Dividend yield: 6.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.bellaliant.ca) that it doesn’t already own. Bell Aliant investors have three options: $31.00 in cash; 0.6371 of a BCE share; or $7.75 in cash plus 0.4778 of a BCE share. BCE will cap the cash portion at 25% of the total payout. We recommend the all-stock option. That way, you can defer capital gains taxes on the BCE shares you get. However, if adding more shares would push up your BCE holdings to more than, say, 10% of your portfolio, you should select the…