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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: larry pollock who wrote (10393)	3/23/2001 4:35:03 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 14638

Seems that BCE profited handsomely from its NT position... +++++++= BCE Terminates Forward Contracts on Nortel Shares MONTREAL, Mar 23, 2001 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- BCE Inc. announced today that over the past few weeks, it has settled its short-term forward contracts on 47.9 million Nortel Network shares and separately sold an equivalent number of shares at an average price of $26.80. These transactions resulted in total proceeds to BCE of $4.4 billion, estimated to be $4.0 billion after payment of tax. When BCE transferred its ownership in Nortel Networks to its shareholders in May 2000, it retained 60 million shares. In the same year, the company announced that it had entered into short-term forward contracts whereby it had hedged 46.4 million Nortel Networks shares at an average price of approximately $90 per share and an additional 1.5 million Nortel shares at an average price of $103 per share The proceeds will be used to repay short-term debt of approximately $2.6 billion, incurred as part of financing the BCE Group's growth initiatives including the purchase of CTV and Teleglobe and acquisitions by BCE Emergis. As a result, BCE Inc. will have no debt outstanding on a non-consolidated basis. The remaining proceeds will be used to continue funding the company's growth program. BCE will continue to hold 12.1 million Nortel Networks common shares of which six million have been reserved to hedge BCE's exposure to outstanding stock appreciation rights, relating to Nortel Networks shares, which were granted to employees under the company's option plans prior to May, 2000. BCE is Canada's largest communications company. It has more than 20 million customer connections through the wireline, wireless, data/Internet and satellite services it provides, largely under the Bell brand. BCE leverages those connections with extensive content creation capabilities through Bell Globemedia which features some of the strongest brands in the industry -- CTV, Canada's leading private broadcaster, The Globe and Mail, Canada's National Newspaper, and Sympatico-Lycos and Globe Interactive, which jointly have the largest Canadian presence on the web. As well, BCE has extensive e-commerce capabilities provided under the BCE Emergis brand and serves international customers through Teleglobe, a global connectivity, content distribution and Internet hosting company. BCE shares are listed in Canada, the United States and Europe.