The Canadian province of Manitoba passed legislation to turn the provincially-owned Manitoba Telephone System into a publicly- traded company, Reuter reports from Winnipeg. The offer is expected to raise $525m to $560m and could be the largest single offering in Canada this calendar year. The 90-year-old firm was one of only two provincially-owned phone companies in Canada. The other is SaskTel, owned by the neighboring province of Saskatchewan. The legislation bars any individual from owning more than 10% of Manitoba Telephone but a 25% limit on strategic partners was removed from the bill before it was passed. The company did about $10m net on $370m business in 1994.
