The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that SaskTel's president is downplaying the risk analysis the company is conducting in the wake of BCE's planned takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services. The Post's Emily Jackson writes that SaskTel took the unusual step of hiring a consultant to conduct a risk analysis after Bell announced plans in early May to buy MTS for $3.9-billion. The assessment is merely to keep customers fully informed about changes to the marketplace, SaskTel president Ron Styles said Wednesday. However, on Tuesday, Premier Brad Wall repeated calls for the analysis and insisted there are no plans to privatize the company. None of the major telcos has approached SaskTel with similar acquisition offers, Mr. Styles said. Still, he said the MTS deal could make Bell an even tougher competitor in the long term. "They're essentially right on our doorstep," he added. "That's not new ... but they're going to be closer, they're going to be larger and they're going to have larger economies of scale." SaskTel expects to hire a consultant this week and release the risk analysis to the public by the third week of June. Mr. Wall has promised not to privatize the company without a referendum.