Ed Rogers to seek court approval of board overhaul today: Source
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Edward Rogers intends to ask the British Columbia Supreme Court on Tuesday for legal validation of his move last week to overhaul the board of directors at the telecom giant that bears his family name.
Edward Rogers intends to ask the British Columbia Supreme Court on Tuesday for legal validation of his move last week to overhaul the board of directors at the telecom giant that bears his family name.
The only son of Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI) founder Ted Rogers is eager for a judge to decide which of the two groups of people claiming to be the company’s legitimate board is legally bona fide, according to a source close to the 52-year-old billionaire. His mother, two sisters and the company itself argue Mr. Rogers acted beyond his authority last Friday by using a written resolution to replace five independent RCI directors who one day earlier removed him as the company’s chair.
Mr. Rogers does have the authority to support - or remove - RCI directors through his position as chair of the Rogers Control Trust, which holds 97.5 per cent of voting shares in the company. However, his opponents insist such actions cannot be made “with the stroke of a pen” and can only occur at a shareholder meeting.
After meeting with his hand-picked replacement directors on Sunday - all of whom voted to reinstate him as RCI’s chair - Mr. Rogers announced his intention to seek court approval of his decisions and the manner in which they were made in B.C., where Rogers is incorporated.
“I have every confidence that the filing is going in today,” said a source close to Mr. Rogers early Tuesday afternoon. “Edward has a very strong view that this thing should be resolved as quickly as possible.”
While the person, who has been granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the record, said Edward’s team was not “going to impose a timeline on the courts” with an estimate of how long the process will take from here, the person added “everybody recognizes that the sooner the court [rules on] the actions taken, the better for everybody.”
