Rogers Communications Evaluates Sale Of Blue Jays, Cogeco Stake

(RTTNews) - Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI.TO, RCI) is considering selling assets such as baseball's Toronto Blue Jays and a stake in media company Cogeco Inc. to free up capital for other investments, Bloomberg quoted Chief Financial Officer Tony Staffieri as saying.

The report noted that the company wants to get more value for the assets, though no deal is imminent.

Rogers plans to increase investments in its wireless network as part of a plan to capture a surge in data use, Chief Executive Officer Joe Natale told the Globe & Mail this week.

The company has said before that it's exploring ways to get more value from its portfolio of assets, including the Jays, but Staffieri's comments Tuesday were more specific. Rogers still wants rights to sports programming but doesn't have to own a team to have that, he said, pointing to the company's 12-year deal with the National Hockey League.

The company has been a longtime investor in Cogeco and now holds about a third of the media company and a fifth of its cable unit, Cogeco Communications Inc.