Shaw's Canada Wireless Ambitions Start With Calming Edgy Lenders
- Borrowing costs spike on Wind Mobile-deal financing concern
- A credit cut to junk would be like `one foot in the grave'
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Shaw Communications Inc. is facing key hurdle in its bid to turn Canada’s Big Three wireless phone companies into the Big Four: assuring lenders it won’t sacrifice its credit rating in the battle.
Shaw’s cost of financing in the bond market has spiked since Standard & Poor’s said last month the company’s plan to spend C$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) to acquire Wind Mobile Corp., Canada’s fourth-largest wireless carrier, could tip its rating from investment grade into junk. Shaw has said it won’t let that happen, and it will have the chance to explain how when it presents quarterly earnings Thursday afternoon in Calgary.