Confident Qwest Pooh-Poohs Pending Probe

Anyone who thought that news of a federal probe would cow the Qwest (Q Quote) bulls has obviously never run with this herd.

At a Monday morning speech at New York's Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference, CEO Joe Nacchio insisted that the Securities and Exchange Commission's questions about Qwest's books are "nothing new" and that if it weren't for the media, regulators would never have bothered to seek the information.

The company also stuck to its guns in saying that it didn't believe that worries stemming from the SEC probe would keep it from closing the sale of $1.5 billion of bonds Tuesday. Meanwhile, the cash-short Denver telco said it would seek to renegotiate cash-flow covenants on its bank credit line, and that it wouldn't be forced into asset sales simply to keep its investment-grade bond rating. For the moment, Qwest investors were mostly buying Nacchio's stay-the-course message; the stock fell 4% Monday, dropping 38 cents, to $9.33.

Early Bird

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