DBRS Rates Bell Canada’s $1 Billion Notes Issue A (low), Stable Trend

DBRS has today assigned a rating of A (low) to Bell Canada’s recently announced debentures issue. The trend is Stable.

The new issuance of $1 billion 4.85% Series M-20 Debentures (the Debentures) matures in 2014. The issuance will be under Bell Canada’s $3.0 billion short-form base shelf prospectus for debt securities dated June 13, 2007.

The Debentures will be unsecured obligations of Bell Canada and will rank pari passu with all other unsecured and unsubordinated indebtedness of Bell Canada. The Debentures will also be unconditionally guaranteed as to payment of principal, interest and other payment obligations by BCE Inc.

DBRS expects Bell Canada to use the proceeds from this debentures issue for redeeming and repaying existing indebtedness (with the intention to redeem $600 million of debentures maturing in August 2010), and for general corporate purposes.

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

The applicable methodology is Rating Telecommunications, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

This is a Corporate (Telecommunications) rating.