Quebecor ‘still interested’ in Wind

Quebecor Inc. is “still interested” in Wind Mobile and is “certainly interested in talking with them” following the announced buyout of the carrier on Tuesday, Quebecor’s senior vice-president and chief financial officer Jean-Francois Pruneau said Wednesday. Speaking during a CIBC investor conference in Montreal, Pruneau said that “we have, I think, very valuable spectrum ownership, which if they want, we can contribute ... in the venture and be a partner with them as well.” The $285 million that a consortium led by Wind CEO Anthony Lacavera agreed to pay to buy the shares Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd. had in Wind was “a reasonable entry price” that Quebecor could have afforded, Pruneau said. “That, we could have been able to do it by ourselves," he said. "But what goes after is also significant. In fact, it’s more than significant. And that, we definitely needed some partners to do that. We didn’t want to be the buyer of Wind for precisely that reason, because once you’ve started that, you’re at risk for the rest.” When it comes to a potential national launch of wireless service, “things are slowly falling into place, from our perspective, de-risking the investment, and it’s really in line with our measured approach,” Pruneau said. He said the company still needs more clarity on roaming costs. While a cap on wholesale roaming imposed by the government has decreased the company’s costs, “we need more than that,” Pruneau said. He added that the upcoming AWS-3 and 2500 MHz auctions are positive steps by the government. Pruneau said another factor in taking the company's wireless service national is that “Quebecor doesn’t have the balance sheet to stomach that investment alone.” In response to a question about the attitude of potential financial partners in creating a fourth national wireless carrier, Pruneau said “as we do, they want to see the risk level going down.” “The regulatory environment is definitely an element that restrains investment,” he said. “I’ve had many, many discussions with many, many potential partners, and as we do, they want to see the risk level going down. And now it’s slowly falling in place. So I think we’re going to see more and more interest of potential partners.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Quebecor ‘still interested’ in Wind

News | September 17, 2014

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Quebecor ‘still interested’ in Wind

News | September 17, 2014

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Freedom debuts LTE in Calgary and Edmonton

Freedom to at least quadruple handset offering by mid-2017: Shaw

Wind hits 1M subscribers in first quarterly report since 2014

Shaw says timing, current market dynamics made Wind deal attractive

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us