The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition BCE's goal of achieving $100-million in pretax cost-savings by privatizing Bell Aliant may not be easy. The Post's Jonathan Ratner writes the synergies are a key element in determining whether the anticipated free cash flow accretion BCE proposed is achievable, along with dividend growth. BCE did not provide much detail on the operating and capital synergies, but management did highlight several more obvious targets. BCE expects to realize 90 per cent or more of the synergies within the first year. Savings from consolidating billing platforms are a tough assignment, CIBC analyst Robert Bek told clients. He thinks the $100-million goal may be overly optimistic due to the level of pre-existing co-operation already in place between BCE and Bell Aliant. Mr. Bek noted the companies entered into several commercial agreements in 2006 that provided Bell Aliant with support services -- such as operations and human resources -- and to collaborate on intellectual property and provision of telco services. The analyst pointed out the companies also already act as agents for each other, so there is little opportunity on the distribution side to drive further savings.