Edward Rogers out as board chair, as Natale seeks to reassure investors amid Rogers boardroom drama

Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale said he’s “got strong unequivocal support from the board to direct the strategy of the company," after the Board of Directors formed an "executive oversight committee" to create "clear protocols" for interactions between chair Edward Rogers and the executive team, and a month after the departure of chief financial officer Tony Staffieri. On Thursday evening, Rogers announced that Edward Rogers had been removed from his position as chair of the board, replaced by John MacDonald. “This has been a challenging time for the Corporation and I want to reaffirm on behalf of the majority of the Board our support for and total confidence in the management team and CEO of Rogers Communications,” MacDonald said in a release. Natale made the comments on a Thursday morning earnings call with analysts, as the CEO sought to downplay worries for investors about a rift in the company's upper echelons. Edward Rogers will remain on the board as a company director. The oversight board, Natale said Thursday morning, "was created to advise and assist the chair,” and himself in carrying out their “respective duties, and to establish clear protocols between the chair and members of management," and will be accompanied by a comprehensive corporate governance review. As first reported by the Globe and Mail, Natale survived an attempted coup in which Edward Rogers -- son of company founder Ted Rogers -- sought to have Natale replaced by Staffieri, as well as remove several members of the executive team. Staffieri left the company in late-September. “With the stock underperforming the group materially so far this year, we believe that there is a need for a strong CFO to provide clarity to the Street with respect to these variances and build confidence as we emerge from the pandemic conditions,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Aravinda Galappatthige wrote at the time. Revenue this quarter remained flat at $3.66 billion, only up incrementally from the third quarter of 2020. The company's profit fell four per cent, down to $490 million for the quarter from the $512 million the company reported a year ago. The flat revenue is a result of "service revenue growth in our wireless and cable businesses, offset by lower media revenue and lower wireless equipment revenue," according to the company's report. Within the wireless division, revenue dipped a single per cent, down to $2.22 billion from $2.23 billion this time last year. The company added some 175,000 postpaid wireless subscribers, a 37 per cent jump from the 138,000 the company added last year. Rogers attributed the uptick to "an increase in market activity by Canadians with the ongoing opening of the economy," in its earnings report. The company now has 10 million postpaid wireless subscribers, up from the 9.57 million it reported a year ago. Rogers also added 11,000 prepaid wireless subscribers, a drop from the 30,000 it added in the same quarter a year ago. It now has a total of 1.19 million subscribers, down from the 1.3 million prepaid wireless subscribers the company had a year ago. The company's average revenue per user (ARPU) increased slightly to $51.31 from $51.12 last year. In its cable division, Rogers reported a three per cent revenue increase, up to $1.02 billion from $988 million last year. The company added 12,000 internet subscribers, down from the 16,000 it added a year ago, for a total of 2.65 million subscribers. It also saw 64,000 additional subscribers to its Ignite TV service, up from the 38,000 subscribers the company had a year ago. The company now reports a total of 732,000 Ignite TV subscribers, up from the 473,000 the company reported in the third quarter of 2020. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Edward Rogers out as board chair, as Natale seeks to reassure investors amid Rogers boardroom drama

Broadcast | October 21, 2021

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Edward Rogers out as board chair, as Natale seeks to reassure investors amid Rogers boardroom drama

Broadcast | October 21, 2021

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