Morningstar | BCE Announces CEO Cope to Retire in January 2020; Will Be Succeeded by COO Bibic
On June 28, 2019, BCE announced that CEO George Cope will retire in January 2020, when current COO Mirko Bibic will succeed him. While we did not expect Cope's retirement to occur in the near term, he has already spent 11 years in the CEO role, and we believe it is a good time for the transition. In our view, BCE is positioned very well and remains on course in executing a sound long-term strategy. Given our appreciation for BCE's positioning, we think Bibic is an excellent choice as a successor. We expect a seamless transition, and we are maintaining our CAD 64 fair value estimate for the narrow-moat firm.Cope is an industry veteran and wireless pioneer in Canada, as he was president of Clearnet starting in 1987, where he led the acquisition of substantial amounts of wireless spectrum. After Telus' acquisition of Clearnet around the turn of the century, Cope headed Telus' new wireless business and stayed there until joining BCE as COO in 2006. Cope advanced the wireless business at BCE by entering a network sharing agreement with Telus, which helped BCE leapfrog Rogers in many network quality surveys, and by acquiring MTS, which expanded the firm's national footprint and further consolidated the Canadian wireless industry. Recently, we've liked the firm's fiber to the home buildout strategy, which makes BCE a stronger broadband competitor versus Rogers.
BCE remains our favorite Canadian telco, and we wholly approve of its strategy, so we believe keeping the succession in house is the right move. As COO, Bibic is the natural successor, and we think he was likely groomed for the role. He's been with BCE since 2004 in a variety of roles with major responsibilities. As COO, he has been responsible for Bell Mobility, Bell Residential and Small Business, and Bell Business Markets. As those divisions encompass all the most crucial aspects of BCE's operations, we believe he will prove to be highly capable, and we don't expect any deviations from BCE's current path.
BCE is a telecommunications and media company providing wireless, wireline, Internet and television (TV) services to residential, business and wholesale customers in Canada. As of Dec 31 2017, Co. operated three segments: Bell Wireless, which provides wireless voice and data communications products and services; Bell Wireline, which provides data, Satellite TV service and connectivity, and includes Co.'s wholesale business, which buys and sells local telephone, long distance, data and other services from or to resellers and other carriers; and Bell Media, which provides conventional, specialty and pay TV, digital media and radio broadcasting services and out of home advertising services.
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