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Gold/Mining/Energy : T.TSE Telus Corp. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zardoz who wrote (90)	6/21/2002 3:29:19 PM
From: Scott Mc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 107

I would "guess", yes, they have at least 8B in debt to service, Scott

To: Zardoz who wrote (90)	7/24/2002 5:54:01 PM
From: CIMA	Respond to of 107

This an excerpt from a couple of days ago re bonds: If the stock sounds like a buy, consider Telus bonds. The company's 7.5 per cent bond maturing June 1, 2006 traded Friday at 77.11. In other words, an investor pays $77.11 for every $100 of face value. That discount and the 7.5-per-cent coupon produce a yield of 15.62 per cent. This is investment grade debt trading at junk bond levels. At least, it's investment grade for the time being. Two bond rating services, Dominion Bond Rating Service and Standard & Poor's, have downgraded Telus debt to the low end of investment grade. Moody's Investors Service hasn't changed its rating yet but warned last month that a review now underway could result in a downgrade. "Credit agencies have become particularly stringent given the amount of bad news and corporate malfeasance that has transpired within the private sector," Entwistle said. "We do not believe that the fundamentals of this organization, be it financial or operational, are appropriate to a non-investment grade rating." Entwistle noted that over the last 12 months, the telecommunications industry has lost more than $2 trillion in value, 40 companies have filed for bankruptcy and 50 have had their debt ratings cut. He said management will whittle Telus debt, which stands at about $8.6 billion, to no more than three times EBITDA from its current ratio of 3.6 to 3.7 times. He said this is the ratio the credit agencies focus on. "We have communicated to the marketplace that by the end of 2003 we will be at three times debt to EBITDA," Entwistle said. "And we will be there." Entwistle said Telus will be cash flow positive next year and, during the second half of 2003, will repay debt in order to reach that goal. Although a debt downgrade would be unfortunate, Entwistle explained that it would not affect the bottom line because much of the company's debt is at a fixed rate for seven years. And since there are no plans to raise additional debt, there would be no change in financing costs.