BCE Inc.'s LBO: Board Should Take C$36, Forget About Break Fee

With so many investment banks advising on each side of the BCE (BCE) leveraged buyout ((LBO)), each of whom stood to gain tens of millions of dollars in fees should the largest going-private in the world eventually close, why did none of them figure out that BCE wouldn’t be “solvent” under the proposed capital structure? Perhaps that wasn’t their job, after all. Once you win the mandate, even the continents’ greatest domestic and international i-bankers don’t always tell their clients what they fear isn’t welcome news: such as, “your proposal is C$3 billion short in the equity box”.