DBRS Discontinues Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership’s Ratings

DBRS Limited (DBRS) has today discontinued Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership’s (Bell Aliant or the Company) Issuer Rating, Senior Unsecured Debt rating and Commercial Paper rating, removing the ratings from Under Review with Positive Implications. The discontinuations follow the successful acquisition of the Company by BCE Inc. (BCE).

On July 23, 2014, BCE announced that it would privatize its Bell Aliant Inc. affiliate by acquiring the interest of public minority shareholders for consideration of approximately $3.95 billion. DBRS subsequently placed Bell Aliant’s ratings Under Review with Positive Implications based on the stronger credit profile of BCE/Bell Canada. The transaction closed on October 31, 2014.

On November 20, 2014, BCE announced the completion of a previously announced transaction to exchange all Bell Aliant medium-term and floating-rate medium-term notes for Bell Canada debentures with the same financial terms. The note exchange transaction is part of BCE's strategy to simplify its capital structure and enhance administrative efficiencies by concentrating public debt into a single issuer. As a result of the note exchange transaction, Bell Aliant and its guarantors have been discharged of their obligations under the Bell Aliant notes and the related trust indenture.

Notes:
All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

The applicable methodology is Rating Companies in the Communications Industry (October 2014), which can be found on our website under Methodologies.