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speakup

OTTAWA - The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan cleared a major hurdle to completing the biggest takeover in Canadian history yesterday after the federal regulator approved its acquisition of telecommunications giant BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE).

The CRTC said the approval was subject to certain conditions, most designed to ensure the iconic company remains under control of Canadians.

In his ruling, commission chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said Teachers' must appoint six of the 13 directors, one more than under the agreement with its U.S. minority partners Providence Equity Partners, Madison Partners and Merrill Lynch. As well, he said the chairman must be Canadian, as must the company's CEO, who is also on the board but cannot serve as chairman.

"I have to make sure that both in law and effect, the company will be controlled by Canadians," von Finckenstein said.

"I think with the provisions as we conditioned them, it will be."

Teachers' spokeswoman Deborah Allan said pension fund officials were reviewing the decision and would not be issuing a statement at this time.

Bell issued a statement saying the only regulatory approval standing in the way for the deal to close by June 30 was approval from Industry Canada.

But the $52-billion acquisition still faces questions over whether banks that had agreed to finance the deal will seek to back out in the face of the financial markets turmoil that has made credit riskier and hard to attain.