Breaking News: BCE Buyout Can Proceed, Canada High Court Rules

[WSJ_law_blog]

This just in from our neighbor to the north: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the $35 billion leveraged buyout of Canadian telecom BCE — the largest LBO in history — can go ahead. Here’s the AP report, via WSJ.

The high court overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked the deal because it had failed to adequately consider the interests of bondholders, an argument that, lawyers say, probably wouldn’t fly in the U.S. The ruling allows the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Providence Equity, Madison Dearborn and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity to finalize the deal to buy BCE.

Find past LB coverage of BCE’s battle against its bondholders here and here. Here’s a Reuters report from today that lays out a helpful time-line of the case.

The financing banks — Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Toronto-Dominion Bank — issued the following statement: “The banks expect that the transaction will close in accordance with the Definitive Agreement between BCE and the sponsors. We continue to negotiate the financing documents in good faith with the sponsors and stand behind our original commitment to the transaction.”