FACTBOX: Too much debt puts big BCE buyout in peril

(Reuters) - BCE Inc, Canada's biggest telecom company, said on Wednesday that a C$34.8 billion ($28.2 billion) leveraged buyout to take the company private is unlikely to close next month because accountants have determined that the company that would emerge from the deal would have too much debt to pass a solvency test.

Here are some key facts about the world's largest leveraged buyout deal and about BCE.

THE PROPOSED BUYOUT

- Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, with U.S.-based private equity firms Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, are offering C$42.75 a share in cash to take BCE private.

- Under terms of the deal announced on June 30, 2007, Teachers Private Capital will hold a 52 percent stake in BCE, Providence 32 percent, Madison Dearborn 9 percent, and other Canadian investors 7 percent.

- BCE would pay a break fee of C$800 million in certain circumstances, while the buyer would pay C$1 billion fee.

- The buyer has commitments for facilities to support ongoing liquidity needs for the company, BCE said when it announced the agreement.

- The deal has received approval from Industry Canada and the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission. It was backed by Canada's Supreme Court in June. The top court overturned a lower court decision that sided with some bondholders who claimed the deal was unfair.

THE COMPANY

- Bell Telephone Company of Canada employed 150 people and had about 2,100 subscribers when it was incorporated in 1880.

- Today, Montreal-based BCE, parent of Bell Canada, is Canada's largest communications company. At the end of 2007, it had 54,034 employees, 6.2 million wireless subscribers, 1.8 million video subscribers, and 2 million high-speed Internet subscribers.

- BCE reported 2007 net earnings of C$4 billion and revenue of C$17.8 billion, according to its annual report. It had C$717 million in debt due within one year, including bank advances and notes payable, long-term debt of C$10.6 billion and cash of C$2.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2007.

- The company's Toronto-listed shares slumped to a six-year low on Wednesday at C$24.24. In the past 12 months, the stock has lost about 38 percent of its value. Its current market capitalization is C$19.5 billion, calculated using a share count of 806.2 million according to Reuters data.

($1=$1.23 Canadian)

(Reporting by Susan Taylor in Ottawa, editing by Peter Galloway)