RE:Lenders just love BCE stock, will take 5.5% interest for 30 Lenders is a broad brush stroke, lol
Some entities sit on vast amounts or transient cash that they would like returns on.
Insurance companies for example would buy the bonds for that yield with a portion of their portfolio, they would also likely buy the stocks with a portion.
its not either or when playing with that volume of cash it's more of a where... each lending target is a risk mitigation opportunity...
let's say intact insurance had 1B to sit in BCE, if they buy shares they will create such demand that they would spike the share price and if they need to sell they would tank the share price.... so they buy bonds so that their transient transactions are less volatile....