Rogers buying millions of shares in Cogeco
Rogers Communications Inc. announced today that it has entered into agreements to purchase 3,200,000 subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Cable Inc. and 1,623,500 subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Inc.
Rogers is Canada’s largest cable provider in Canada with just under 2.3 million basic cable customers while Cogeco is the country’s fourth largest cable provider with 865,000 basic cable cusomers.
The total cost for the shares in both Cogeco Cable and Cogeco Inc. was $163 million.
The company says that it is acquiring the Cogeco Inc. shares and the Cogeco Cable Inc. shares for investment purposes and has no current intention of acquiring ownership of or control or direction over any additional Cogeco Inc. or Cogeco Cable Inc. shares.
Despite the assurances that it is buying the shares strictly for investment purposes, Rogers says it reserves the right to acquire additional shares of Cogeco Inc. or Cogeco Cable Inc. and the announcement was being issued as required under the early warning requirements of applicable securities laws.
The Cogeco Cable Inc. shares being acquired represent approximately 9.7% of the outstanding Cogeco Cable Inc. subordinate voting shares. After giving effect to these purchases, Rogers Communications will own 9,795,675 subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Cable Inc. representing approximately 29.8% of the subordinate voting shares and approximately 20.2% of the equity of Cogeco Cable Inc.
The Cogeco Inc. shares being acquired represent approximately 10.9% of the outstanding Cogeco Inc. subordinate voting shares. After giving effect to these purchases, Rogers Communications will own 5,023,300 subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Inc. representing approximately 33.6% of the subordinate voting shares and approximately 29.9% of the equity of Cogeco Inc.
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