Rogers faces recruiting trouble if CEO is ousted: Newhaven

Rogers will have trouble recruiting top executives if it gets rid of CEO Joe Natale, according to Newhaven's president.

Rogers Communications Inc. will have trouble recruiting top executives if it gets rid of Chief Executive Officer Joe Natale, according to the president of Newhaven Asset Management Inc. 

If Edward Rogers manages to retake control of the board and make good on his threat to fire Natale, “How are they going to attract talent to that company? That’s something Edward Rogers should be really thinking about right now,” Newhaven’s president, Ryan Bushell, said Tuesday on BNN Bloomberg television. Bushell’s Toronto-based firm has some client accounts that hold Rogers shares. 

Natale’s future has been in question since September, when Edward Rogers tried to force him out, citing concerns about share performance and the integration work needed on the company’s US$16 billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. 

A majority of the board blocked the move, however, setting off a public battle for control of the board that has gone all the way to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. A judge will rule Friday on whether Edward Rogers has the right to unilaterally replace the directors who opposed him. 

In his filings to the B.C. court, Edward Rogers included an internal presentation on why he believed Natale should go. The presentation highlighted several metrics, including share-price performance and customer service, where Rogers trails wireless rivals BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. 

Rogers Communications is controlled by a Rogers family trust that has about 97 per cent of the voting shares. Almost none the shares held by outside investors have voting rights. Edward Rogers’s mother and sisters oppose his plan and voted Oct. 21 to remove him as chairman.