When I purchased stock in BCE Inc. (BCE/NYSE) last August, I said one of the things I liked about the company was management's commitment to repurchasing shares. Shedding assets and ample dividend payouts are added attractions.
Yesterday BCE announced plans to buy back and cancel another C$1.2 billion worth of its stock, or about 5% of the shares. BCE previously bought 45.15 million of its common shares, at a total cost of C$1.24 billion cash, in a normal course issuer bid that expired on February 2.
Nothing is guaranteed. But selling off assets to focus on core businesses, returning cash to shareholders and aggressively buying back stock could well be the recipe for rewarding investors in BCE.
Suspending dividends, and using the money to buy back shares does not help the shareholder in this case since BCE is a closed deal.
That's like turning over 1.2 billion $ to the Teachers Union, which should have been dividends.
Bill
Posted by: Bill Cantwell | November 09, 2008 at 11:43 AM