Thank you, Edward, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Rogers 2025 Annual General Meeting.
As Edward mentioned, 2024 marked our third straight year of industry-leading results.
We out-executed and out-performed our competitors – delivering industry leading revenue and EBITDA growth; wireless and wireline margins, and wireless and internet subscriber growth. We did this while making strategic investments to drive long-term growth.
When I reflect on where we are today, a lot has changed.
The US tariff policies are having a ripple effect globally. We are seeing signs of a slowing economy. Consumer confidence is down. The unemployment rate is up. The stock market is volatile.
Importantly, we remain confident in our long-term growth plan. As I look to the year ahead, there are three things we know:
First, our sector is impacted by the slowdown in immigration. This will continue to contribute to revenue headwinds.
Second, our sector will remain highly competitive as we compete for market share.
Third, we have a proven track record of delivering results. We do this through disciplined execution, clear prioritization, and strategic long-term bets. And we will invest strategically to grow and lead our sector for years to come.
We have a 65-year track record of leading through a variety of economic conditions.
That’s how Rogers grew from one radio station to Canada’s leading communications and entertainment company.
Today, I want to discuss how we’re navigating this period of uncertainty. Our plan includes leveraging our incredible mix of assets to drive growth, it includes how we will unlock value from our sports assets, and it includes de-levering our balance sheet while investing in the long-term.
As a starting point, I believe we have the best asset mix in the business.
We are Canada’s largest wireless carrier. We are the largest cable company. And our sports assets rival the best sports portfolios in the world.
Our mix of assets gives us an undisputed advantage over our competitors — we work in an industry where demand for connectivity and content is growing. And we’re well positioned.
People are consuming more content across more screens and more devices – from live sports to the best shows.
In the last 5 years, wireless data usage is up 400% and home data usage is up 200%. And we plan to lead and drive this demand for data.
Our network blankets the nation with the most reliable 5G network and the most reliable home internet. This means we are best positioned to grow the number of customers that use all of our services.
We lead on converged market share in the East, and we are targeting to widen our lead.
In the West, almost half of our Shaw residential customers now subscribe to Rogers wireless. And this will continue to grow.
We also see opportunities to grow the number of customers within the home.
Today, many households have multiple wireless providers, and we know customers want all their phones with one provider. We’re targeting those customers.
We now offer 5G wireless Home Internet in every province. We introduced 5GHI last year and recently introduced faster speeds to create even more growth opportunities. This new service will allow us to offer our full suite of Xfinity products everywhere.
This represents a key opportunity to grow revenue and expand market share, especially with the cord-shaving segment and out-of-footprint internet customers.
Across our businesses, we’ve ramped up our focus on our existing customers.
This work includes delivering better customer service. Our new AI-powered tools make it simpler for customers to find answers more quickly and for agents to find solutions more efficiently. This reduces friction for our customers and saves our agents time so they can more quickly serve the next customer.
The explosive growth in connectivity is matched by strong demand for content, and live sports, in particular.
Sports is core to our business. Just look at our assets — Sportsnet, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Argonauts, and the NHL national rights – the most coveted sports content in the country.
Sports assets are appreciating substantially. And we’ve announced strategic investments to execute on our sports strategy.
We’re expanding our sports ownership to become majority owner of MLSE, one of the most prestigious sports and entertainment organizations in the world.
We’re extending our partnership with the NHL for another 12 years.
We’re ensuring Sportsnet keeps growing as the country’s #1 sports media brand.
Together, this scale means we can connect fans to the best live sports and content on Rogers Xfinity, Sportsnet+, and other platforms.
We know our world-class sports portfolio is not recognized in our share price. We are working on a clear plan to surface more value for our sports assets over the medium term.
But I want to be clear: we’re investing in these appreciating assets because we see a clear path to monetize them and to unlock their unrecognized value in our share price.
We recognize the pressure we have seen on our share price. And we’re taking the necessary steps to address this.
We can’t control everything that affects capital markets – but we can control how we operate, how we invest, and how we manage our balance sheet.
Importantly, we are making these investments while de-levering our balance sheet.
When we merged with Shaw, we said we would return leverage to 3.5x within 36 months of closing. We have made very good progress, and we will deliver on this commitment.
Since January we have issued an aggregate $9 billion of equity-valued capital.
First, we raised $4 billion in February with the sale of hybrid bonds. Earlier this month, we announced a definitive agreement for a $7 billion structured equity investment to repay debt.
As we announced this morning, when the equity investment deal closes, debt leverage ratio is expected to be 3.6x – 24 months after closing Shaw.
We are squarely focused on strengthening our investment-grade balance sheet by reducing our debt.
And we are doing this while making strategic investments to drive long-term growth.
In fact, we have been in a major investment cycle – making long-term investments despite volatile economic and sector conditions.
Over the last 15 years we’ve invested $60 billion in our networks. And over the next 15 years, we’ll invest billions more to grow our company, deliver new innovations to Canadians and to fuel Canada’s economic prosperity.
To make these long-term investments, we need a partner in government.
Edward highlighted how current regulations are undermining Canadian network builders and hurting Canadian broadcasters.
At this critical time for our country, we need to get this right — for our country, our economy and our sector.
We need a government to incent Canadian companies, and to reward Canadian companies for making bold bets.
We need to remove barriers to investment, to remove barriers that inhibit expanding and improving the digital infrastructure that powers the Canadian economy.
Next week, there will be a new government in Canada. We need the government to create economic sovereignty for our country, our economy and our sector.
Rogers has been investing in Canada for 65 years, and we will invest for the next 65 and beyond.
In closing, I would like to thank Edward and the board for their support, our team for their relentless dedication, and our shareholders for their confidence. Thank you.