Manitoba Telecom Services is redoubling efforts to find a buyer for its MTS Allstream division, the Globe and Mail reports. The Canadian operator hired Morgan Stanley to drum up foreign interest, especially from the US, after attempts to find a Canadian suitor fizzled. MTS is said to be in no rush to sell Allstream and there is no full-fledged auction planned. Sources familiar with the Allstream assets said most potential buyers value it at CAD 400 million or less, while Allstream is believed to be seeking considerably more than CAD 500 million in a sale. Globalive Wireless held discussions with MTS for much of 2011, but those talks ended in November, the paper's sources said. Rogers Communications, Telus, BCE and Shaw Communications have all passed on Allstream. MTS acquired Allstream, formerly known as AT&T Canada, for CAD 1.7 billion in 2004. The company offers telecom services to medium-sized and large Canadian businesses, has a national network that includes some 30,000km of fibre concentrated in large cities, and can reach about 60 percent of corporate Canada.
