Louis Audet will step aside as chief executive of Cogeco Communications Inc. this fall and help with the transition to his successor, the first CEO outside the Audet family and only the third in the cable company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Philippe Jett\u00e9, a senior executive who currently runs Cogeco\u2019s business unit, will become the CEO. And Audet \u2014 who has led the Montreal-based company controlled by his family for 25 years since the resignation of his father, founder Henri Audet \u2014 will become executive chairman. Both changes will be effective as of Sept. 1.<\/p>\n
The board began the succession process began in 2016 when Audet, who turns 67 in a few weeks, informed them he plans to exit operations by his 70th<\/sup> birthday, Audet said at a news conference in Montreal on Tuesday. All the candidates were internal, although there were no potential candidates from the Audet family at this time.<\/p>\n Both Audet and Jett\u00e9 emphasized that the strategy will remain the same.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an opportune time to pass the baton to the next generation of managers,\u201d Audet said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a change of strategy or philosophy, it\u2019s a renewal of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n Audet plans to stay for two to four years to ensure a smooth transition and assist with major decisions such as acquisitions. He said he has no political aspirations.<\/p>\n The management changes prompted analysts to speculate whether Cogeco might once more become a takeover target for Rogers Communications Inc., which owns 5.6 per cent of Cogeco and 11.7 per cent of its holding company.<\/p>\n \u201cThese analysts are living in fantasy land. Our company is not for sale,\u201d Audet said.<\/p>\n After 60 years in operation, Cogeco is now worth $2.3 billion. In comments translated from French, Jett\u00e9 said he\u2019d pick up the challenge of ensuring growth.<\/p>\n Jett\u00e9 is an electrical engineer with two decades of experience in the telecom industry. He previously worked in wireless roles at BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. before joining Cogeco in 2011. He took over Cogeco Peer 1 in 2015, receiving praise for stabilizing the business at a tough time. Jett\u00e9 said his top priority is to ensure a disciplined transition and that he\u2019ll remain focused on Peer 1 until the fall.<\/p>\n Jett\u00e9\u2019s wireless experience prompted speculation over whether Cogeco will make a foray into the mobile business, the fastest growing and largest segment of Canada\u2019s telecommunications industry.<\/p>\n Cogeco is exploring the idea, Audet said, but will only offer wireless services if it can do so profitably.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have big ambitions in that field, but there is some potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Analysts reacted positively toward the changes to move professional management from the family.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we believe CCA moving towards professional management is certainly a positive, we would not immediately assume any significant shift in the company’s strategic direction,\u201d Barclays analyst Phillip Huang noted to clients, citing less emotional attachment to assets and more disciplined, rational capital allocation.<\/p>\n But Huang doesn\u2019t see a clear path for Cogeco to enter the wireless business given the government\u2019s policy for facilities-based competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Philippe Jetté, a senior executive who runs Cogeco’s business unit, will become the CEO and Louis Audet will become chairman on Sept. 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9680,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions\/9680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}