Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE:RCI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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So, do I think there is room for further growth in Cable on its margin? Yes. We have posted the margin we have this morning on the back of a small decline in revenue year over year in the quarter. That’s a pretty strong performance. There’s more opportunity ahead, but I’m not going to guide beyond that. Jerome, I’m sorry.

Paul Carpino: Last question, Ariel.

Operator: Our final question comes from David McFadgen of Cormark. Please go ahead.

David McFadgen : Just two questions just on the mobile phone. That adds obviously very strong. Just kind of wondering how many of those are on a bundle specifically in the West? Because it looks like you’re starting to really derive some revenue synergies from the Shaw acquisition. And then secondly, on the leverage, you talked about your expectation to be able to drop it by 0.1 times to 0.2 times per quarter. Does that factor in the DRIP participation that you talked about in issuing stock from treasury? And what’s the participation rate again? Thanks.

Tony Staffieri: David, I’ll start with the first one in terms of mobile net ads and the extent to which they’re coming in on the bundle. I’m not going to disclose that type of granularity, but to put it in perspective, I would say, in terms of product convergence and therefore the bundling, it’s early days. And so, while we’re seeing good success in the overall scheme of total wireless loadings, it’s still is the minority, not the majority to be clear. So, I just want to put that in perspective. And it’s disproportionately better in the west only because we now are an alternative in the West. And so, we’re new to the category of being able to bundle. And so, we’re seeing very good market acceptance there. In the east, we’ve always been able to offer that bundle opportunity, and that continues to do well in the east as well. So that’s how you ought to think about the trends on that and the relative size.

Glenn Brandt : And then David, on the DRIP program, we launched that as I said for the October, quarterly payment, and the take-up rate with the first payment that it was available was 28%. Very pleased with that take up — and so at a 30% run rate that would translate to roughly $300 million a year of cash savings I’ll let you all know I understand and acknowledge that that does not mean the dividends didn’t get paid. They got paid with our most expensive capital and shares. But that’s how these programs work. And that is how we will preserve just that much more of our free cash flow to nominally pay down debt and deliever as well as by delievering through earnings growth. We do factor that in Dave. It’s one of many variables that we will factor in as we go forward.

But yes, that’s included. As I say, when we — I expect we will come down by 0.1 to 0.2 per quarter, roughly a half to earn a year. And we’re on track for delivering exactly that. Keep in mind from time to time there will be spectrum investments made and so in one particular quarter here or there, they may be on the lighter side of the 0.1 or 0.2. But we are delivering very strong earnings growth and very strong free cash flow generation to continue that pace to delever. Very satisfied with where we are on it.

Paul Carpino: And thanks everyone for joining us today, and if there’s any follow-up questions, please reach out to the IR team. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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