‘Our shares are not for sale’: Audet rebuffs unsolicited bid for Cogeco again

MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc.’s largest shareholder and chairman says he and his family are not planning to sell or seek a higher bidder for the telecommunications companies.

Louis Audet says in a statement Monday that his family’s controlling stake of the Cogeco companies is not for sale and their position is definitive.

The statement comes after New York-based Altice USA Inc. made an unsolicited, $10.3-billion bid for the Montreal-headquartered Cogeco companies last week.

Altice also brokered a side arrangement that would have seen Rogers Communications Inc. buy Cogeco’s Canadian assets for $4.9 billion.

Audet and Cogeco’s independent board members swiftly rebuffed the bid, while Quebec Premier Francois Legault hinted that he would interfere if Toronto-based Rogers thought of moving Cogeco’s head office to Ontario.

Rogers later promised in a release that it would ensure Cogeco’s headquarters, management team and Quebec-based media assets remain in the province.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CCA, TSX:CGO, TSX:RCI)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press