The $50 billion privatisation of Bell Canada is in trouble after bean counters could not decide if the outfit would remain solvent after if the buyout went ahead.

Bell Canada, which trades under the corporate name BCE, is among Canada’s most widely held and prominent corporations. If the accountants don't change their minds, “the transaction is unlikely to proceed,” the company said. The outfit was being bought by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as well as the other retirement funds.

There have been doubts about the deal for a while. In a brief statement, Bell Canada said that the accounting firm KPMG found in a preliminary analysis that “the amount of the indebtedness” involved in financing the deal would be about $30 billion. This left accountants unable to conclude whether the privatized company would ever make money.

Bell Canada’s chief financial officer, Siim Vanaselja, said that the way that KPMG had calculated the debt the outfit had was incorrect.

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