ROGERS PRESIDENT AND CEO Tony Staffieri (above, centre) is “unsurprised” François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said he would not allow the company to acquire all of Shaw Communications’ wireless licences last week.
Speaking with Scotiabank telecom analyst Jeff Fan (right) at the bank’s telecom, media and technology conference this afternoon, along with Glenn Brandt (left), Rogers’ chief financial officer, Staffieri said the statement was actually “very helpful in terms of articulating their broad view, which is on the wireless side, what they’d like to see is a continued fourth player in the marketplace.”
Overall, Staffieri told Fan Rogers’ proposed merger with Shaw is moving forward as planned. He pointed out when the deal was announced last year, Rogers said it would close in the first half of this year, and in a recent conference call with investors, they said it would close in the second quarter of this year.
“And that’s what we’re tracking to right now,” Staffieri said. “We’re working with all three regulatory bodies as you would expect – CRTC, ISED, as well as the Competition Bureau – and we’ve had very healthy dialogue with each of those in terms of the things they’d like to see.”
Staffieri told Fan the deal for Rogers is really about Shaw’s cable assets.
“This was from the very outset a cable acquisition for us and a cable deal, and so that’s 90% of the transaction for us and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said. “And on the wireless side we’ll continue to work with the regulatory bodies on a solution that’s going to achieve their objective of, and as he said, they’d like to see that fourth player. We share a common view that we want to continue to see healthy competition that’s backed up by healthy investment.”
Staffieri said there is not anything at this point that is a surprise for Rogers.
He said the issues are “much less substantial” from a competition standpoint on the cable side of the transaction. Since Shaw covers the west of Canada, “there is little to no overlap at all.”
Staffieri pointed out there was a CRTC hearing into the transaction last November, and indicated he believes given what was heard at that time, there seems to be “a good path to get the right outcome on the cable side of the assets, and so we’re not foreseeing any significant issues as we continue to work through that.”
When asked about integration plans, Staffieri said the company has appointed “a dedicated integration leader” who is in Calgary.
He also talked about the company making other management changes. (As Cartt.ca has reported, there have been several changes at Rogers since Staffieri’s appointment as president and CEO in early January, which you can read about here, here and here.)
The changes “really are getting at making sure we have in place the management experience and execution discipline, so that we are ready for the integration of Shaw,” Staffieri said.
Staffieri agreed with Fan when he said the company’s priorities right now are to close the Shaw deal and improve performance. Part of meeting those priorities is making sure the right team is in place. “We’re focused very much so on outcomes and so, we’ve been going through a revamping of our internal organization to make it much more simpler in terms of accountabilities,” he said.
Staffieri and Brandt were also asked about the financing for the Shaw deal.
“We have the financing in place to close the deal,” Brandt said, reiterating they also now have clarity with regards to Shaw’s wireless assets. “Those really were the largest targets still to get to. We’ve now set those aside and we can now continue working on the business execution the financing has looked after.”
