Rogers Communications: Stock of the Week

Andrew Willis:

The recent earnings miss from Rogers Communications RCI didn’t help with taking the pressure off questions around the Shaw SJRWF deal. The merger between the companies came with an olive branch to Canadian competition regulators by offering to sell off the Freedom mobile business to competitor Quebecor QBCAF. But after another failed mediation, the deal is still in question.

The offer from Rogers and Shaw to give up Freedom Mobile to competitor Quebecor wasn’t enough to convince regulators in the latest round of talks. But our hopes weren’t too high anyway. Rogers and Shaw have already made considerable concessions, and we don’t see any more middle ground available.

Equity analyst Matthew Dolgin says the Competition Bureau seems unequivocal in its opposition to the deal, but the companies may take their case to the Competition Tribunal in December for a ruling.

We think the deal has what it takes to be approved. There’s no overlapping wireline business. It adds Québec to an existing discount wireless network while improving the network in other provinces. We want to empower Freedom Mobile and believe it’d be stronger with the backing of Quebecor—which means more competition from coast to coast.

For Morningstar, I’m Andrew Willis.

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