Canada’s four biggest telecoms—Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Quebecor—are carrying more than $100-billion in long-term debt, a 5x increase from two decades ago.
That debt, according to data from S&P Capital IQ, reports the Globe and Mail, was once seen as a strategic tool for funding infrastructure and acquisitions, but is now being viewed as a growing liability as sector growth slows and interest rates remain high.
Rogers currently holds the highest debt-to-earnings ratio at 4.3 times net debt-to-EBITDA, followed by Telus at 3.8, Bell at 3.5, and Quebecor at 3.2. The numbers show that telecoms owe several times their annual earnings, highlighting how their debt loads outweigh income—and raising concerns about financial risk.
These ratios, which were relatively stable through the early 2000s, began going up after 2010 as telecoms took on more debt to fund 5G and fibre rollouts, buy wireless spectrum, and pursue multi-billion-dollar acquisitions.
This chart shows Rogers now carries the most debt by far, especially after its 2023 Shaw acquisition:
“The minute the growth starts to slow or the profitability starts to suffer, the more of a focal point [debt] becomes,” said Sean McDevitt of consultancy Arthur D. Little.
Recent moves to rein in leverage include asset sales, dividend cuts, and equity partnerships. Rogers is selling a $7-billion stake in its wireless network, Bell is offloading non-core assets including Northwestel, and Telus is exploring the sale of parts of its towers and real estate portfolio. Bell also halved its dividend last week to free up cash.
Analysts say the key challenge isn’t whether these companies can manage their payments—it’s whether they can hold onto their investment-grade credit ratings. A downgrade could force some institutional investors to sell off their bonds, raising borrowing costs and further straining balance sheets.
As of today, share prices of each telecom over the past year are as follows:
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Looks like the glamour days are over!
You're delusional. This is just ANOTHER excuse to raise rates and fees. And guess who's going to be paying (more)?
If you mean glamour as in soon to see a box for these greedy clowns then yes other then that piss off
Cue the virtue signalling , sympathy, and performative behavior.
Yet their CEO'a rake in Millions .. I guess I see why they are in so much debt!
Canada is still underserved across our big geography. There are thousands of kilometers of fiber yet to lay and even more cell towers to erect before anywhere rural is properly served. That means more debt (or taxes) not less. Yikes.
Not our problem unless they make our problem and tbh those greedy corpos CEO's need to have a pay cut and stop raising prices for no reason when a few CEO's can be in a forever box
As much debt as our entire country meanwhile we pay some of the most absurd prices.
All of these rich ceOs can get f**ked.
Government debt in Canada is $1.46 TRILLION
"Public debt of Canadian provinces, territories, and local governments (PTLG) The total financial liabilities or gross debt of the Canadian consolidated provincial, territorial and local governments (PTLG) was $1,460 billion in 2021 (the fiscal year ending 31 March 2022)…"
If these are our Captains of industry, then we should rename Canada HMCS Titanic…
Yeah, that's some strategy, run the company into the ground by extracting as much profit as possible then when the bills come in, go whining to the government they need help.