Manitoba Telecom Services Inc said it could sell stock to make up for its pension plan shortfall. The plan to sell its stock came after Canadian regulators did not approve of the sale of its MTS Allstream business division to Accelero Capital Holdings Sarl Group due to concerns about national security. Accelero Capital is the investment company which Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris co-founded.
In a phone interview with Bloomberg, Manitoba Telecom Chief Executive Officer Pierre Blouin said, "Our preference would be to issue equity. We're really looking at analyzing first what type of amount we would need and exactly what vehicle we would use."
However, Blouin said the company does not yet have a time line for its equity plans.
Manitoba Telecom is the biggest phone company in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The company intended to use CAD 130 million of the proceeds generated from the Allstream sale to fund its pension plan. It also planned to pay back its short-term debt of CAD 70 million.
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