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He was hailed as crypto’s saviour. Now he needs billions for a bailout

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Last week, California billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was touted as a key figure in cryptocurrency — even a saviour. Today, amid a series of apologetic tweets, he said “I f–ked up” after his cryptocurrency exchange bled billions of dollars.

His FTX exchange is now scrambling to raise $9.4 billion US from both investors and rivals, as customers rush to withdraw their funds.

A lot of people trusted FTX as a place to buy tokens or cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin.

Now industry watchers say its spectacular fall may be the catalyst that forces governments — including Canada’s — to crack down on cryptocurrency.

The trouble sparked when the rival owner of the world’s largest exchange, Binance, questioned the stability of FTX on Twitter. That touched off a three-day panic costing FTX an estimated $6 billion US.

Binance head Changpeng Zhao then on Wednesday backtracked on a proposed buyout of his second-ranked rival, citing regulatory concerns, according to the New York Times.

That sent FTX into a tailspin.

Bankman-Fried has said he’s in talks with others on another rescue deal, but made no promises.

“I’m sorry. That’s the biggest thing. I f–ked up, and should have done better,” he wrote on Twitter.

What exact mistakes were made, remain unclear.

But crypto experts say investor money that should be “liquid” is not.

FTX was facing mounting legal and regulatory threats before withdrawals were frozen, according to Samson Mow, CEO of Pixelmatic and JAN3, a new bitcoin technology company.

Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao, left, meets with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in San Salvador, El Salvador, on March 24. Zhao was briefly poised to buy out FTX. (Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Reuters)

Mow says the FTX explosion has a familiar feel, though digital assets like bitcoin and ethereum were not the problem.

He says the exchange created tokens called FTT that were used to hold value. FTT was the backbone of FTX so when its value dipped, users scrambled to get out.

Mow says the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission is investigating and that it seems like client money may have been improperly used to help dig FTX’s affiliate company Alameda Research out of a $10-billion hole.

People who bought bitcoin or other currencies through the exchange now can’t withdraw them.

Mow says bitcoin is reliable but that exchanges which rely on tokens like FTT as collateral are built on a house of financial cards.

He said users know the risk of being “lazy” and leaving assets unclaimed on a currency exchange.

Binance and FTX logos are seen in this illustration. Bankman-Fried blamed himself for FTX’s losses, though it’s not clear what exactly went wrong. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

“You gambled on a casino that went bust — and now you’ve lost your money,” said Mow.

He says people who did not withdraw their digital assets and keep them in their own wallet now can’t get access them, because FTX used FTT as collateral and those tokens are now worthless, he says.

“There’s an old saying — not your keys, not your coins. It’s not a new lesson. People are just not learning. They are gambling — and got what they deserved.”

The implosion of FTX, which was valued at $32 billion US not long ago, is just the latest bad news for digital asset investors. Bitcoin prices are less than a third what they were at their height in 2021, before a big crash last fall.

But Bankman-Fried was seen as an influential player, someone who “was working closely with regulators,” to try to regulate the space, said Ashley Stanhope of Ether Capital Corp., a public company focused on ethereum, and a founding member for the Canadian Web3 Council, a group collaborating with governments to build better investor protections.

He had also spent millions helping other companies, claiming he was a proponent of effective altruism, a movement that espouses charitable giving to safeguard humanity’s future.

An advertisement for bitcoin is displayed on a street in Hong Kong, on Feb. 17. (Kin Cheung/The Associated Press)

Her interpretation of his apology is that he made “genuine missteps. It doesn’t sound like he was trying to scam investors or do do them wrong,” she said.

Stanhope says this situation hurts the industry’s credibility and that she fears regulators will now “paint all crypto with the same brush.”

Among FTX’s investors is the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan’s (OTPP) which put more than $126 million into the exchange between October 2021 and January 2022.

In a statement the OTPP said Thursday the “uncertainty” at FTX will have “limited impact” on the pension plan, as the investment was less than 0.05 per cent of its total net assets.

As for FTX’s losses and how they will affect the industry, Stanhope admits it’s a challenge, and that Bankman-Fried’s fall will likely shift the crypto landscape.

“The FTX implosion will likely change investors’ approach,” she said.

“We’ll probably see more users take their assets off centralized exchanges and rely on self-hosted wallets,” until exchanges are safer and more transparent, she said.

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Telus prioritizing ‘most important customers,’ avoiding ‘unprofitable’ offers: CFO

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Telus Corp. says it is avoiding offering “unprofitable” discounts as fierce competition in the Canadian telecommunications sector shows no sign of slowing down.

The company said Friday it had fewer net new customers during its third quarter compared with the same time last year, as it copes with increasingly “aggressive marketing and promotional pricing” that is prompting more customers to switch providers.

Telus said it added 347,000 net new customers, down around 14.5 per cent compared with last year. The figure includes 130,000 mobile phone subscribers and 34,000 internet customers, down 30,000 and 3,000, respectively, year-over-year.

The company reported its mobile phone churn rate — a metric measuring subscribers who cancelled their services — was 1.09 per cent in the third quarter, up from 1.03 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. That included a postpaid mobile phone churn rate of 0.90 per cent in its latest quarter.

Telus said its focus is on customer retention through its “industry-leading service and network quality, along with successful promotions and bundled offerings.”

“The customers we have are the most important customers we can get,” said chief financial officer Doug French in an interview.

“We’ve, again, just continued to focus on what matters most to our customers, from a product and customer service perspective, while not loading unprofitable customers.”

Meanwhile, Telus reported its net income attributable to common shares more than doubled during its third quarter.

The telecommunications company said it earned $280 million, up 105.9 per cent from the same three-month period in 2023. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was 19 cents compared with nine cents a year earlier.

It reported adjusted net income was $413 million, up 10.7 per cent year-over-year from $373 million in the same quarter last year. Operating revenue and other income for the quarter was $5.1 billion, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year.

Mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.85 in the third quarter, a decrease of $2.09 or 3.4 per cent from a year ago. Telus said the drop was attributable to customers signing up for base rate plans with lower prices, along with a decline in overage and roaming revenues.

It said customers are increasingly adopting unlimited data and Canada-U.S. plans which provide higher and more stable ARPU on a monthly basis.

“In a tough operating environment and relative to peers, we view Q3 results that were in line to slightly better than forecast as the best of the bunch,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds in a note.

Scotiabank analyst Maher Yaghi added that “the telecom industry in Canada remains very challenging for all players, however, Telus has been able to face these pressures” and still deliver growth.

The Big 3 telecom providers — which also include Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. — have frequently stressed that the market has grown more competitive in recent years, especially after the closing of Quebecor Inc.’s purchase of Freedom Mobile in April 2023.

Hailed as a fourth national carrier, Quebecor has invested in enhancements to Freedom’s network while offering more affordable plans as part of a set of commitments it was mandated by Ottawa to agree to.

The cost of telephone services in September was down eight per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent inflation report last month.

“I think competition has been and continues to be, I’d say, quite intense in Canada, and we’ve obviously had to just manage our business the way we see fit,” said French.

Asked how long that environment could last, he said that’s out of Telus’ hands.

“What I can control, though, is how we go to market and how we lead with our products,” he said.

“I think the conditions within the market will have to adjust accordingly over time. We’ve continued to focus on digitization, continued to bring our cost structure down to compete, irrespective of the price and the current market conditions.”

Still, Canada’s telecom regulator continues to warn providers about customers facing more charges on their cellphone and internet bills.

On Tuesday, CRTC vice-president of consumer, analytics and strategy Scott Hutton called on providers to ensure they clearly inform their customers of charges such as early cancellation fees.

That followed statements from the regulator in recent weeks cautioning against rising international roaming fees and “surprise” price increases being found on their bills.

Hutton said the CRTC plans to launch public consultations in the coming weeks that will focus “on ensuring that information is clear and consistent, making it easier to compare offers and switch services or providers.”

“The CRTC is concerned with recent trends, which suggest that Canadians may not be benefiting from the full protections of our codes,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor developments and will take further action if our codes are not being followed.”

French said any initiative to boost transparency is a step in the right direction.

“I can’t say we are perfect across the board, but what I can say is we are absolutely taking it under consideration and trying to be the best at communicating with our customers,” he said.

“I think everyone looking in the mirror would say there’s room for improvement.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:T)

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TC Energy cuts cost estimate for Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico

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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.

It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.

The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.

TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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BCE reports Q3 loss on asset impairment charge, cuts revenue guidance

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BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.

The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.

“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”

Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.

BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.

The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.

BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.

It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.

The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”

Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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