Bell Canada Debenture Holders Receive Decision from Quebec Superior Court Approving BCE Plan of Arrangement

TORONTO, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Committee comprising certain institutional holders of 1997 Bell Canada debentures today received the decision of the Honourable Justice Silcoff of the Quebec Superior Court of Justice approving a plan of arrangement under which BCE will be acquired by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Committee members objected to the plan of arrangement because they believe it is unfair to debenture holders. The proposed plan forces Bell Canada, the BCE subsidiary in which Committee members hold bonds, to guarantee $32 billion in loans that the purchaser will incur to purchase the shares of BCE. Committee members believe that Bell will receive nothing in return for guaranteeing that debt. The proposed plan has already led to a dramatic decrease in the market value of the bonds and has led some credit agencies to downgrade the bonds' status from investment grade to junk bond status.

Committee members also believe that it was unfair for the directors of Bell to have allowed Bell to guarantee the debt without considering the issue from the perspective of Bell and its bondholders.

In approving the proposed plan, the Court declined to accept the debentureholders' submissions that the proposed plan was unfair to the debentureholders.

While our clients are obviously disappointed with the result, they will be reviewing the decision carefully over the coming days in order to consider what steps, if any, they might want to take in response to the decision.

The Committee is comprised of a "blue chip" roster of life insurance companies and money managers in the North American market place such as Addenda Capital Inc., Barclays Global Investors Canada Limited, CIBC Global Asset Management Inc., Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Alberta, as Represented by the Minister of Finance, Manulife Financial Corporation, Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management Ltd., Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, TD Asset Management Inc. and The Wawanesa Life Insurance Company.

Source: Committee of '97 Bell Bondholders

CONTACT: Markus Koehnen, McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP, Tel: (416)
865-7218, Cell: (416) 846-4961, markus.koehnen@mcmbm.com; Paul Macdonald,
McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP, Tel: (416) 865-7167, Cell: (416) 312-4868,
paul.macdonald@mcmbm.com; Counsel for the Informal Committee of Debenture
Holders under the 1997 Indentures

2008-03-07 19:29:46 0307575 PRNEWSWIRE