Rogers earnings beats expectations as CEO set to step down

Late Thursday evening Rogers made the surprise announcement that Nadir Mohamed would leave the Toronto-based company by January 2014.

Photograph by: Aaron Vincent Elkaim , The Canadian Press

With more consumers buying smartphones than ever before and growth in valuable wireless data use, Rogers Communications Inc. reported better-than-expected quarterly results at the same time as the company said its CEO will retire next year.
Late Thursday evening Rogers made the surprise announcement that Nadir Mohamed would leave the Toronto-based company by January 2014.
Mr. Mohamed has been with Rogers since 2000 and headed its wireless division before taking over the top job in 2008, after Ted Rogers Jr. passed away.
The company said its board will appoint a committee to begin an international search for a new chief executive but neither Edward Rogers III or his sister Melinda Rogers will put their names forward, although they will be involved in the search.

Rogers reported a 3% gain in quarterly revenue to $3.26-billion and 88 cents in earnings per share — beating estimates of $3.19-billion and 72 cents per share.
It recorded quarterly net income of $455-million, up from $350-million in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
The company also announced an annualized dividend rate increases of 10% to $1.74 per share.
Mr. Mohamed says Rogers exited 2012 with accelerating growth across its asset mix and with continued improvements in its key metrics.
He said it was a record quarter for smartphone sales in the wireless business, the cable division did well with strong Internet growth and industry-leading margins and the media business continued to improve and grow.
During the three months ended Dec. 31, the company had 940,000 activations and upgrades of smartphones, the highest number in its history, it said. About 29% of those were new customers.
Wireless data revenue also grew by 21% which helped power a 2.8% increase in blended average revenue per user, Rogers said.
“Importantly, we achieved or exceeded all of our full year financial guidance metrics and are well positioned for 2013,” Mr. Mohamed said

 By Christine Dobby, Financial Post February 15, 2013