Bell Canada Buyout

The 51.7 billion (Canadian $$) buyout for Canada's largest company is another one that smells.  The primary buyout group includes the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.  First, their involvement meets the 47% cap on foreign ownership under Canadian law that limits other United States buyout groups from actively bidding.  In other words, they are getting it cheap and if the Canadian Parliament lifts the cap they can immediately resell for a profit.  Second, the what is a teacher's pension plan doing with so much money in one deal?  Using teachers pension money to speculate on a buyout makes sense only in very small amounts.  Third, the bidding process was very secretive and led to speculation about a broad that favored a bidder that would protect existing management.  The Teacher's Pension Plan managers have been publicly very complimentary of existing managers.  It does not take much in an action to favor one bidder over another, managers have advisers that know the tricks; a secretive auction makes the temptation overwhelming.  We need to get better control over the conflicted role of existing management in buyouts, Canadian and American.