The Globalive ownership hearings conclude tomorrow.
Last night, redacted versions [
pdf, 3.9MB] of last week’s in-camera session were released. Globalive and Orascom had completely reworked their corporate structure (removing a layer of holding companies) and developed a new operating term sheet between the two days of hearings.
It is worth pointing out a few highlights from Thursday’s transcripts.
At page 94, CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein appeared to summarize the Commission’s concerns when he said:
You addressed an awful lot of points on the structure, et cetera, but the fact is that the same company owns the majority of the debt — owns practically all the debt, owns the majority of the equity and is also your principal service supplier, and you this morning said that that Service Agreement is also another way of getting your return on investment et cetera. So there are 3 large levers in one hand and that hand is not Canadian.
On page 95, the Chair defines the issue as a legal one:
Basically what you are asking for is a conditional approval, you know, without a clock, but basically give it and as soon as markets will allow us, we will Canadianize this thing so that there can be no question about it.
Except I don’t have that authority. That is the issue. I mean if the Act allowed for something like that, then, you know, your business point, we all three hear it and they are very cogent et cetera, but it is not a business issue, it is a legal issue. It is a question that there are three major levers in the hands of a non-Canadian and does [that] amount to control or not.
These levers of control would appear to be the focus of tomorrow’s closing arguments.