Weekly "Focus" and Communications Breakdown

This week, our office phones were “upgraded” by Bell Canada to Cisco IP handsets.  We are getting up to speed on the new features as quickly as possible so apologies in advance if we drop calls inadvertently

 

 

It's been a tough 12 months for the S&P/TSX Communications Services sector with a total return decline of approximately -8.1% (ii). The sector includes telecom heavy weights such as BCE* (parent of Bell Canada), Rogers*, and Telus*. The companies have been challenged with slower growth in their sector caused by lower immigration to Canada and a wireless price war after Rogers bought Shaw. Also, the companies’ balance sheets were saddled with too much debt. To address the situation, we’ve seen a large dividend cut from BCE and last week Rogers announced a deal to sell a minority stake in its wireless network infrastructure for $7 billion to Blackstone and a group of Canadian pension plans. As well, Telus is exploring the sale of its wireless tower network for more than $1 billion. Like the broader stock market, the shares are off their lows with the sector up on a total return basis by 4.4% year-to-date, and with lower GIC rates their dividend yields should continue to attract investors looking for income (ii).

 

	Return in 2025	Current Yield
BCE (BCE)	-5.8%	5.8%
Rogers Communications (RCI.B)	-7.3%	5.0%
Telus (T)	+15.9%	7.6%

Source: FactSet, Values as of June 25, 2025

 

This week’s "Focus" from our economics team is attached.

 

Have a great weekend and enjoy the Canada Day holiday next Tuesday,

 

Brad

Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor