CPP Investment Board says will not make new BCE bid

By Frank Pingue

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board said on Thursday it has no interest in making a renewed bid to take over BCE Inc (BCE.TO: Quote) (BCE.N: Quote) but does see smaller opportunities amid volatile market conditions.

A court ruling has threatened to derail the accepted takeover offer for BCE, Canada's biggest telecom company, but the CPP board said that decision has no impact as it abandoned plans to acquire BCE when its own bid was rejected last summer.

The board also said there is now no capability for mounting a leveraged buyout of the size necessary for BCE as market conditions make it harder to finance deals using debt.

"We put a lot of time and energy into our bid ... but that's a long time ago. At that point we redirected our attention elsewhere," David Denison, the board's chief executive, told Reuters. "That size of deal, whether it's BCE or any other company, that size of deal could not happen in today's markets."

The board's bid was rejected in favor of a C$34.8 billion ($35.2 billion) offer from a group of investors led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. But that deal could fall apart after a Quebec court ruled on Wednesday in favor of debtholders who complained that the transaction was unfair to them.

Denison said the board has moved on from BCE and now sees opportunities popping up in infrastructure and real estate sectors around the world.

"We've got a real global focus on infrastructure and we see opportunities around the world, same on real estate," Denison said. "Real estate valuations have come off and we think that that's going to be potentially a good time for us as a long-term investor."

Denison said the board is aware that U.S. lawmakers have been debating the role of sovereign wealth funds, or large pools of capital controlled by a government and invested in private markets abroad, after a number of the funds invested billions of dollars in large U.S. financial institutions such as Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote).