You would be forgiven if upon seeing today's papers, you had to check the calendar. A multi-billion dollar buyout? For a fixed-line telecommunications company?  In 2007?

Yet even as worries mount about the market for debt offerings used to finance buyouts, there clearly remains an appetite by private equity for very big deals. That was underscored this weekend, when Canada's biggest telephone company, B.C.E., parent of Bell Canada, agreed to be acquired by a private-equity group for $48.5 billion including debt. It is the biggest takeover by far in Canada's history.

 Big public pension funds are usually the main investors in buyouts. In this instance, it is a pension fund that is actually leading the consortium that is buying B.C.E.: the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund. The American private equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners are also in the group.

The Lex column in the Financial Times says that the B.C.E. deal may be a special case.  Canada's rules on limiting foreign ownership in telecommunications meant that the pension funds "were in the driving seat.''  And it may have been a case that both pension fund and private-equity partners simply needed to put their huge piles of cash to work.

For the B.C.E. deal is an expensive one.  The buyout group is paying 42.75 Canadian dollars a share-a 40 percent premium to the average trading price of B.C.E. in the first quarter of this year. (Bidding for B.C.E. began in April.) The deal also values BCE at 7.8 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

There may be untapped potential in the company. B.C.E. also has wireless assets that could drive growth.

"This is a unique opportunity to contribute to and participate in the growth of one of the world's most significant communications companies," Jonathan M. Nelson, chief executive of Providence Equity Partners, said in a statement.

The Globe and Mail reports that the bidding for BCE may not be over. Cerberus Capital Management and B.C.E. rival Telus have not given up their pursuit and are considering their options, the paper says.