All About Nortel » Stock

Nortel’s Bonds Are Hot, Red Hot

Mark Evans — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:53:50 +0000

Now for some surprisingly good news from the land of Nortel: the company’s 10.25% bonds are now trading at 76 cents on the dollar – nearly an eight-fold increase since March when they traded at 10 cents.

The Globe & Mail reports that the bonds have increased in value to due to the money the company has raised from selling assets over the past six months since the board essentially threw in the towel, and decided to abandon the idea of emerging from bankruptcy protection as a leaner entity.

“It’s a pretty amazing round trip,” said Barry Allan, founder of Marret Asset Management, told the Globe & Mail.

While bondholders are happy, Nortel’s common shareholders are $X?@$%! out of luck. A few months ago, the company said it was unlikely the common shares would have any value as a result of the bankruptcy protection process.

Nortel Shares: From $124.50 to Worthless

Mark Evans — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:00:10 +0000

Nortel’s decision to delist its shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange is a long, long, long, long way from the rockin’ days of the telecom boom when the stock hit $124.50 ($1245.00 when you take into account a 10:1 stock consolidation) in August 2000.

Here’s a chart to show how the mighty have fallen:

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Why is NT Still Trading

Mark Evans — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:51:04 +0000

The Globe & Mail has a story about a question that a lot of people are asking: why are Nortel shares still trading even though it filed for bankruptcy protection?

The explanation is that:

“While the chances are high that the shares will be worthless, that isn’t a certainty. There is a slim possibility there could be something left for common shareholders, and the company is still functioning, so the shares keep trading.”

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NT Up Again

Mark Evans — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:44:07 +0000

Nortel shares climbed another 21%, or 6.5 cents, to 36.5 cents today on the Toronto Stock Exchange. For the week, it more than tripled. Interesting.

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Nortel Shares Up?

Mark Evans — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:22:21 +0000

Hmmm, what’s going on with Nortel shares today – up 6 cents, or 57%, 16.5 cents in Toronto (NT/TSE) on volume of 11.4 million shares?

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Would You Invest in the New Nortel?

Mark Evans — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:19:00 +0000

This article on Fortune.com about bargains within the high-tech sector caught my attention because it mentioned Nortel in lede.

Of course, it’s not possible to purchase Nortel shares after it filed for bankruptcy protection last month. But it did get me thinking about how much of an appetite investors may have when the New Nortel emerges in a few months.

While the New New will likely be privately held by creditors, bond holders and management, at some point it will likely go public again to raise capital and re-establish the company’s profile.

When that happens, it will be interesting to see how much of an appetite there exists for Nortel given all of its troubles and strategic stumbles over the past decade, including the three-year reign of Mike Zafirovski.

A lot, of course, will depend on what the New Nortel looks like and the economic and competitive landscape.

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Nortel Shares Jump 30%

Mark Evans — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:18:22 +0000

Nortel shares have climbed 30% today, or 9 cents, to 38 cents – the highest price in nearly a month.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of news, although there’s speculation Nortel’s board may have met this week to discuss the MEN sale.

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Dubious Win for Nortel

Mark Evans — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:18:17 +0000

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone but Nortel claimed the title as the S&P/TSX’s worst performer in 2008 with a 97.86% decline. That allowed it edge out Oilexco Inc., which fell 97.84%.

Here’s a couple of charts as food for thought:

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Got a Quarter? Buy Some Nortel

Mark Evans — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:32:01 +0000

It’s been awhile – well, a week or so – since I last posted on Nortel’s share price but….it dropped below 25 cents today, hitting a new record low of 24 cents on the NYSE.

Nortel now has a market capitalization of $129.3-million. Of course, it also has $4.5-billion of debt and a pension-fund deficit of perhaps $2.4-billion so it’s not like Nortel is cheap.

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Nortel Terminates ESSP

Mark Evans — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:41:04 +0000

Not sure if many Nortel employees are going to be too upset but Nortel has terminated its employee stock purchase plan (ESSP)

As a result, Nortel employees need to do the following by March 31, 2009:

- Transfer ownership of all whole shares in their accounts to a broker;
- Have all shares in their accounts sold by the plan custodian and receive the proceeds of the sale; or
- Receive all whole shares in their accounts by share certificate.

Nortel said the decision was made due to the stock’s performance, which meant there weren’t enough shares in the pool to keep the ESSPs in operation.

ESSPs are programs that let employees purchase a company’s stock, often at a discount.

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