dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
29

Kardinal
Dei Gratina Regina
Mod
join:2001-02-04
N of 49th

Kardinal to elwoodblues

Mod

to elwoodblues

Re: Wind Mobile wants CRTC hearing over Telus ownership

It's an interesting take, but I'm confused about how a company is supposed to stop their shares being bought by foreign investors. There's a difference between shares being owned by people/investment companies outside Canada and the company being almost entirely foreign financed and controlled. If people outside of Canada want to buy shares in Bell/Telus/Rogers/Videotron, energy companies, whatever.....how are these companies supposed to stop that from happening?

From what I can remember, BCE sold 5% of Bell Canada (wireline telephone and Internet only) to Ameritech (one of the RBOCs created by the breakup of AT&T) in the 90s. Ameritech was then bought by SBC, which then bought Southern Bell and AT&T (by then, only an LD and data provider) and rebranded back to AT&T. Bell bought it back from them in the early 2000s I think, at quite a profit to the US company. I'm not sure if there are any other parts of the BCE empire that have a portion of foreign ownership still in play, other than TSN in the CTV family, which I think is partly owned by ESPN (that's the reason the graphics are all similar). Anyone? Anyone?
MaynardKrebs
We did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17

MaynardKrebs

Premium Member

said by Kardinal:

It's an interesting take, but I'm confused about how a company is supposed to stop their shares being bought by foreign investors.

Here's a simplified how....

When a Canadian company goes public they have to have a 'transfer agent' - called what you may recollect as being a trust company. ...a Canadian trust company in fact.

The trust company is the agent which records the beneficial owners of the shares of the pubic company. The trust company is bound to enforce the laws of the land (Canada) when it comes to recording who the shareholders are - if they don't then their license to operate as a trust company is yanked.

So if the law says that certain specified companies (in this case those governed by the Telecom Act) are not to have greater than an aggregate percentage of share held by non-Canadians (real, people, corporations, pension funds, governments, etc...) then the transfer agent will not register the ownership of those offending shares to the foreign entity, and will advise the entity thereof. The foreign entity will NOT be able to vote the shares, nor will it be paid dividends or interest, as the case may be.

If the foreign entity does not voluntarily sell the shares, the transfer agent will sell the shares and send the proceeds to the foreign entity.
25139889 (banned)
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH

25139889 (banned) to Kardinal

Member

to Kardinal
SBC IS Southern Bell. They changed their name to SBC prior to Ameritech/SNET/PacBell merger/buyout. SBC stands for Southern Bell Communications.

Kardinal
Dei Gratina Regina
Mod
join:2001-02-04
N of 49th

Kardinal

Mod

said by 25139889:

SBC IS Southern Bell. They changed their name to SBC prior to Ameritech/SNET/PacBell merger/buyout. SBC stands for Southern Bell Communications.

My mistake -- BellSouth, not Southern Bell, was the RBOC they bought in 2006.

See, that's what a *helpful* addition to a thread looks like.