Biggest ever deal at $51 bn

The announcement ends suspense over whether the banks funding the takeover — the largest leveraged buyout ever and Canada’s biggest buyout of any kind — would try to back out of the deal or that the price would have to be lowered. The acquisition price remains at $42.08 per share in cash.

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Toronto-Dominion Bank are slated to provide billions in financing to complete the deal. Including assumed debt, the transaction is worth $51 billion. The acquisition by Teachers Private Capital, joined by US investment firms Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, will close “on or before December 11,” BCE said.

“The final agreement, with definitive financing now in place, preserves the $42.08 per common share price announced last June, which the board believes is very much in the best interest of shareholders, the company and Bell Canada, particularly given current capital market conditions,” BCE chairman Richard Currie said.