By Linda Stuart
Pension fund La Caisse (formerly CDPQ) announced after markets closed on Monday it intends to sell a block of shares of Cogeco Communications — representing nearly 11 per cent of the telecom company’s issued and outstanding subordinate shares — at a gross price of $67.45 per share.
La Caisse said in a press release the transaction is part of its periodic portfolio rebalancing and is expected to generate gross proceeds of approximately $229 million. Given the $67.45 share price, this seems to suggest La Caisse is selling nearly 3.4 million shares.
La Caisse said it will remain the largest holder of subordinate shares in Cogeco Communications, which provides internet, mobile, TV and home phone services to 1.6 million residential business customers in Canada and the United States.
“La Caisse has supported Cogeco Communications since 2013 and continues to firmly believe in its potential. Our participation in several major transactions, including the purchase of a $350-million block of shares in 2023, underscores the confidence we have in the company and the direction it is taking,” Kim Thomassin, executive vice president and head of Quebec at La Caisse, said in the press release. “The funds generated will be redeployed in Quebec companies to support and accelerate their growth.”
La Caisse’s first investment in Cogeco Communications was a $50-million loan in 2013. In 2017, La Caisse contributed US$315 million toward Cogeco’s U.S. subsidiary Atlantic Broadband’s (now Breezeline) US$1.4-billion acquisition of MetroCast cable systems in the eastern United States.
In 2023, as part of Rogers Communications’ sale of its stake in Cogeco, La Caisse acquired slightly more than 6.8 million subordinate shares of Cogeco Communications, representing 16.1 per cent of the outstanding shares at the time and worth approximately $350 million.
An email to La Caisse asking the percentage of Cogeco Communications’ outstanding subordinate shares now held by La Caisse following its share sell-off went unanswered by publication time.
Cogeco Communications’ closing share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday was $71.76. Mid-afternoon Tuesday, Cogeco Communications shares were trading at $67.29 on the TSX.
