Rogers Communications announced its biggest-ever quarterly decline in profit, for the second quarter of 2023. For its most recent quarter ending June 30, the company declared earnings of $148 million, or 29 cents per diluted share to investors. That is an amazing drop from last year’s all-time high. Similarly, in that same quarter last year, those earnings were $394 million or 73 cents per share. The decline in income has put a spotlight on the company as it continues to deal with legacy acquisition and restructuring expenses.
Rogers posted revenue of $5.22 billion for the three-month period, up 2.6 per cent from $5.09 billion a year ago. This is remarkable considering that oil and gas profits have taken a big hit. Revenue has increased due to both good fortune and fortuitous decision-making. A big part of that is the media revenue going up by 10 percent, largely because of massive NHL playoff audiences on Sportsnet and the past spring launch of Warner Bros. Discovery’s new television-channel lineup.
Subscriber Growth and Churn Rates
Rogers announced that it had gained 61,000 total mobile phone net-new subscriber additions in the quarter. This number consists of 35,000 net subscriber additions to postpaid mobile phone. That said, it was still a drop-off from the 112,000 postpaid net additions recorded in that same quarter last year.
The firm announced a positive tick down in its monthly churn for net postpaid mobile subs. It’s gone down from 1.07 percent last year to 1.00 percent this quarter. So even with all this churn reduction, which is a sign of improved customer retention, they had lower net additions.
“In the second quarter, Rogers reported strong financial performance delivering growth in wireless, cable, and media,” – Tony Staffieri.
Acquisition and Future Outlook
In a move significantly increasing the risk of expansion, Rogers purchased two-thirds of a sports empire for that amount—$4.7 billion. Dublin based Firefly Mobile, acquired on July 1. This strategic investment is intended to strengthen Rogers’ competitive position in the sports & entertainment hub. It’s a fundamental shift protecting their customers’ health and safety while enriching their service offerings.
Instead, it now expects a three to five percent increase annually in 2025 and beyond. This is quite an upgrade from their last forecast of no to three percent growth.
“Combined with our team’s strong execution, we took meaningful steps to unlock value for shareholders by accelerating the deleveraging of our balance sheet and making our transformational investment in our world-class sports assets,” – Tony Staffieri.
