Canadian telecommunications giant Rogers announced on Monday it would send out consent solicitations to extend the terms of bonds worth a collective $7.05 billion USD and $3 billion CAD that it issued to finance its proposed $26 billion CAD acquisition of Shaw.
The Toronto-based telecom giant currently has until the end of the year to close the Shaw deal. If it fails to do so, Rogers will have to repay its lenders 101 cents on the dollar. Rogers wants to extend that deadline to December 31, 2023, as the Shaw acquisition continues to hang in the balance.
Rogers is a wireless phone operator with presence across Canada, also offering additional services (Cable, Internet) in the provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Shaw is a major cable provider in Western Canada and also owns Canada’s fourth largest mobile provider, Freedom Mobile.
Canada’s parliament has held hearings on the merger, where analysts and academics have objected to the likely elimination of Freedom Mobile as a fourth competitor in the mobile phone sector, helping keep competition down. Rogers also offered several compromises and ‘sweeteners’ to regulators, hoping to secure authorization for the deal, including a commitment to spend $2.5 billion on 5G build-out in Western Canada and $1 billion to connect remote rural and native communities.
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