DBRS Morningstar Assigns Rating of BBB (high) With a Stable Trend to Bell Canada’s Debt Issuances

DBRS Limited (DBRS Morningstar) assigned a rating of BBB (high) with a Stable trend to Bell Canada’s (Bell Canada or the Company; rated BBB (high) with a Stable trend by DBRS Morningstar) USD 600 million 2.150% Series US-5 Notes due 2032 and USD 650 million 3.200% Series US-6 Notes due 2052.

DBRS Morningstar expects the Company to use a portion of the net proceeds from the issuance of the Series US-5 Notes and Series US-6 Notes toward the $2.07 billion cost of 271 licenses for 678 million MHz per population of 3500 MHz spectrum it agreed to acquire pursuant to the Canadian 3500 MHz spectrum auction completed in July 2021 and the balance for the repayment of short-term debt and general corporate purposes.

The Notes will be unsecured and will rank pari passu with all other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness of the Company. Each series of Notes will be issued pursuant to the indenture dated as of September 12, 2016 (as supplemented and amended from time to time in accordance with the terms thereof, the U.S. Indenture), among Bell Canada, as Issuer, BCE, as Guarantor, and The Bank of New York Mellon, as Trustee (the U.S. Trustee). The Notes will be unsecured and unsubordinated obligations of Bell Canada and guaranteed on an unsecured and unsubordinated basis by BCE Inc.
A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework can be found in the DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings at https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/373262.

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

The principal methodologies are Rating Companies in the Communications Industry (July 27, 2021; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/382119), Rating Companies in the Broadcasting Industry (March 12, 2021; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/375262), DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Rating Corporate Holding Companies and Parent/Subsidiary Rating Relationships (November 2, 2020; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/369167), DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Commercial Paper Liquidity Support for Nonbank Issuers (March 9, 2021; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/375001), DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Guarantees and Other Forms of Support (May 31, 2021; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/379424), and DBRS Criteria: Preferred Share and Hybrid Security Criteria for Corporate Issuers (November 2, 2020; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/369165), which can be found on dbrsmorningstar.com under Methodologies & Criteria. Other applicable methodologies include the DBRS Morningstar Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors in Credit Ratings (February 3, 2021; https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/373262).

For more information regarding rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357883.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at [email protected].

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