Peladeau to focus on strategy as Depatie to lead Quebecor

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the 14-year president and CEO of Québecor Media Inc., will relinquish his role as the company’s chief executive and be replaced by Robert Dépatie, now serving as head of Québecor’s telecom subsidiary Videotron Ltd. In a release Thursday, Québecor said Péladeau will step down as CEO of the company his father founded in 1950 as part of some larger corporate management changes to become effective at an annual shareholders meeting in May. Péladeau will take on a smaller role, replacing the retiring Serge Gouin as chair of QMI’s board, sitting as chair of QMI's TVA Group broadcasting subsidiary, and continuing to oversee “strategic files” with the company, a release said. “He’s going to be active with the company in a different role, in a different capacity,” Françoise Bertrand, chair of holding company Québecor Inc., said in a telephone interview. “If you have somebody who is of the capacity of Pierre Karl who devotes a lot of his time to division and strategic issues, certainly good results will come of that.” With more time to devote to the company's strategic direction, Péladeau can help QMI make decisions in an evolving media landscape, Bertrand said. “We’ve seen his vision implemented over the last 14 years and he didn’t have much time. So imagine if he has more time, definitely he will be able to bring to the table the proper analysis in order to make sure that we make the turns we need to make in terms of innovating in this world that is constantly changing,” she said. Bertrand would not say what strategic changes, if any, the board is considering, though she said changes could involve a better exploitation of the company's print media assets and “selling content instead of platforms.” Péladeau joined Québecor in 1985 as an assistant to the company’s president, who was his father, Pierre Péladeau. The younger Péladeau shortly became the company’s president and CEO and held that position for the past 14 years, the release said. In a conference call with analysts Thursday, Péladeau said he is reducing his role in the company’s day-to-day operations to spend more time with his family and three young children. “Simply put, for many years, my life has been Quebecor Inc., in most cases to the exclusion of anything else,” he said. “Because one cannot be a part-time CEO, I have decided to retire from my position and devote my time to other pursuits.” Dépatie, who has served as president and CEO of Vidéotron since 2003, will replace Péladeau after leading Vidéotron to a nearly five-fold growth in operating income over the past nine years, from $275 million to $1.2 billion, and expanding its operations into landline and mobile phone services. Bertrand said it was crucial that Péladeau’s successor had a strong understanding of the telecommunications business, which she said represents 80 per cent of Québecor’s earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). She said Dépatie will bring to the position a passion for digital media as the company tries to turn around a struggling print division. “He’s an exceptional successor to Pierre Karl,” she said of Dépatie, adding that he was in line to succeed Péladeau for a few years. Manon Brouillete, now president of Vidéotron’s consumer market division, will take over as president and chief operating officer of the cable subsidiary, the company said. In a fourth-quarter 2012 financial statement released Thursday, Québecor said growth across Vidéotron’s major services contributed to increased sales in 2012, even as Québecor’s overall operating profits fell 16.6 per cent to $167.7 million for the year due to a $145 million goodwill impairment charge to accommodate “weak economic and market conditions in the newspaper and music industries.” The company said Vidéotron had combined revenues of $2.64 billion in 2012, up $204.4 million, or 8.4 per cent, from a year earlier, including a 6.6 per cent increase in cable television revenues, which rose $66.7 million to $1.08 billion, and a 10.6 per cent increase in Internet revenues, which rose $74.3 million to $772.5 million. Vidéotron reported 52.3 per cent growth in mobile revenues in 2012, which rose $58.9 million to reach $171.6 million. The company added 112,000 wireless subscribers and 55,200 Internet subscribers during the 2012 year while losing 6,500 TV subscribers, its first annual net loss for television subscriptions in years. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Peladeau to focus on strategy as Depatie to lead Quebecor

News | 03/14/2013 9:05 pm EDT

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