>>BCE spins off NORTEL!!!!
I admit I'm surprised BCE is selling off the crown jewels, but then the tall foreheads at BCE must've been under intense pressure to maximise shareholder value, and were convinced by Goldman this was the way to go. BCE jumped from $139 to $144 in about 90 seconds around 2:35 yesterday. I was forced to put Bell into a "fast market", something I hate to do, but we had no idea what was going on. After about ten minutes there was no news forthcoming so we conducted an 'opening' rotation to get the options back trading at their proper levels. I mention this to those who think we are all a bunch of crooks; it would have been very easy to just scoop all the offers out of the book at their limit price and score a coup, but our ethics and the rules prevent that. The volatility did get creamed by the tidal wave of selling, but the options were priced off of the proper stock price, and I know scores of people were happy to get fills above their limit order.
BCE and NT were both halted for the day around 3:30, and as far as I know, the TSE did not allow any trading even after the bell. If they did, I have a big bone to pick with them inasmuch as they insisted they wouldn't. The US market did have after hours trading, but then they actually have a clue as to how to run a market-place.
This is going to be a dog's dinner of a mess. Spinning .78 share for each Bell share is going to create a nightmare in accounting and pricing for us. Plus, new series of BCE options will be listed which will be "ex-" NT. The one thing I was hoping BCE would do, they didn't, splitting their stock like Nortel did. I never thought I'd say this, but Bell is too thin these days. It can move a dollar on two thousand shares. I have no idea where Bell is going to open today, but I would take about 3/1 that it closes down on the day. Hope I'm wrong. All I know for sure is that it's going to be hectic.
Happy trading.
Porter
E&OE |
