The Canadian government has ignored all the consortia of foreign bidders, one of which included British Telecom here, for the state-owned Teleglobe Canada international telecommunications company. Instead it has accepted the bid from small Montreal, Quebec company Memotec Data Inc, which will pay $Can488.3m for the business, which is six times larger than itself. The company was deemed an appropriate home for Teleglobe, because it is backed by 20 of Canada’s largest pension funds, and several other major institutions. The government will clear $Can608.3m from the sale, because it will retain some $Can102m accumulated cash in Teleglobe, and take a special dividend of $Can18m.
