Citi rescue helps Bell Canada deal

The New York Times' DealBook blog is reporting that the Citigroup rescue deal is having an immediate unintended consequence:

The federal government’s bailout of Citigroup has sparked a surge of confidence that the $50 billion takeover of Bell Canada — the largest leveraged buyout in history — will close on schedule in December.

A group of private-equity firms is seeking to buy the Canadian communications company, but much of their funding - $11 billion of the $33 billion to be borrowed - would ultimately come from Citigroup.
Now that the U.S. government backing the company, outsiders are more confident that the funding will still be available and that the deal will go through.

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