BCE Inc. has signed a deal to sell a 49.9 per cent stake of a new company that will own and operate its wireless towers to Quebec investment manager La Caisse for $2.45 billion. The new wireless tower infrastructure company, dubbed TowerCo, will hold Bell’s portfolio of wireless infrastructure assets, with more than 5,000 sites across the country. The deal, which values the new tower company at approximately $4.91 billion, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. Under the terms of the agreement, TowerCo will lease capacity on the transferred towers to Bell, which will retain a 50.1 per cent controlling interest. Headquartered in Montreal, TowerCo will also be open to all carriers, with Bell serving as its largest customer. Bell will keep full ownership and control of its spectrum, all active network equipment and owned land. It will also maintain access to existing sites through long-term agreements, while the new company will develop new sites for Bell as needed. BCE said the new company will focus on growing the business through new site builds, site densification and third-party co-location. “This partnership unlocks the significant value embedded in our infrastructure assets while continuing to operate the award-winning wireless network our customers rely on every day,” BCE president and CEO Mirko Bibic said in a news release. “As we have consistently communicated since early 2025, our approach is to strengthen our balance sheet, invest in growth and deliver total returns to shareholders. This transaction is in keeping with that approach, and the proceeds will be used to execute against this very clear strategy.” Bell isn’t the first major telecommunication company to divest its tower infrastructure to La Caisse. Last year, Telus Corp. also sold a 49.9 per cent stake in a spun-out wireless tower operator to La Caisse for $1.26 billion. The company said the partial sale of the assets would go toward deleveraging, as part of its efforts to strengthen its balance sheet. Telus said at the time the move would also benefit the telecom industry as a whole, with other wireless carriers able to access the tower infrastructure and deliver mobile service to their customers. “A telecom tower can carry more than one network. By making this infrastructure available to different service providers, we can strengthen coverage, improve overall system efficiency, hence helping more people access the connectivity they rely on every day,” Emmanuel Jaclot, La Caisse’s executive vice-president and head of infrastructure and sustainability, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Bell’s extensive footprint and La Caisse’s global digital infrastructure expertise will give this new platform the focus and long-term perspective to grow.” Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi said he expects BCE will repurpose proceeds from the sale into areas of growth such as AI-powered solutions, at a time when the company is scaling up its investments in data centres. “We don’t see the transaction as meaningfully deleveraging the balance sheet,” he said in a note. “We expect BCE to recycle all the capital from this sale into new growth opportunities and not use the proceeds to reduce interest expense, hence we treat this deal as cash negative in the short term until new AI investments pick up the slack when completed.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2026. CTV News and BNN Bloomberg are owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.
