Montreal telecom giant BCE, posted improved second-quarter earnings, helped by a gain from Bell Aliant's sale of Aliant Directory Services and a favorable tax settlement, as revenue rose 1.5% to C$4.44 billion.
BCE earned C$667 million or 83 Canadian cents a share in its latest quarter, up from C$476 million or 53 Canadian cents a year earlier.
Excluding items, BCE earned 56 Canadian cents a share in it latest quarter, up from 54 Canadian cents a year earlier. The Thomson First Call mean estimate was for a profit of 55 Canadian cents.
EBITDA rose 2.5% to C$1.78 billion in the quarter, due to EBITDA growth at the company's Bell Canada and Telesat divisons. Free cash flow improved to C$236 million from C$66 million.
BCE said the Bell wireless segment had 389,000 gross activitations in the quarter, up 6% from a year earlier. However, due to lower churn, net activiations of 63,000 were lower than the 97,000 recorded a year earlier, it said.
As reported, BCE has entered a definitive agreement to be taken private by an investor group led by Teachers' Private Capital, Providence Equity Partners Inc., and Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC. The transaction is valued at C$51.7 billion and offers BCE common shareholders C$42.75 a share.
BCE confirmed its guidance for 2007 share-earnings growth of 4-7% and free cash flow of C$700-C$900 million.
-Judy McKinnon; 416-306-2100; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 1st August 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/25199.php