Bezeq The Israel Telecommunication Corp. Ltd (BEZQ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Bezeq's 2025 First Quarter Earnings Call. I'm Yochai Benita, CFO of Bezeq Group. Joining us from the senior team management today, we have Mr. Tomer Raved, Bezeq's Chairman; Mr. Nir David, Bezeq Fixed-Line CEO; and Mr. Ilan Sigal, CEO of Pelephone. Before we start the call, I would like to direct your attention to the safe harbor statement on Slide 2 of our presentation, which also applies to call. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. Following the presentation of our results, we will have a Q&A session. With that, let me now turn the call over to Tomer for his opening remarks. After his introduction, I will continue the presentation of group's financial highlights, followed by Nir, who will discuss Bezeq's Fixed-line results; and Ilan, who will cover the results from Pelephone. I will conclude the presentation with Bezeq International results.

Thank you, Yochai, and welcome. It's great to have you on board. Let's start on Slide 3, and thank you, everyone, for joining. This was another quarter of strong execution, bringing us meaningfully closer to achieving our strategic goals. As we enter our next phase, we are well-positioned to accelerate growth, further enhance profitability and lead through innovation, both as an enabler and adopter of AI and advanced digital infrastructure. The group's core revenues grew 2.4% this quarter due to growth in Fixed-Line and Pelephone and adjusted net income grew 6.7%. We continue to grow in our strategic drivers, recording a 36% increase in fiber take-up and 18% growth in 5G subscriber plans. The group's retail broadband subscribers, which includes Fixed-Line and yes, grew 2.2% and fiber take-up reached 33%. We are very proud of these stats, which further demonstrate the leadership of Bezeq's fiber infrastructure alongside yes's ability to accelerate retail fiber through its premium TV bundle. Last week, we also upgraded our 2025 guidance for adjusted net profit and adjusted EBITDA due to positive impact of the yes-Partner TV deal. There has been significant progress on the regulatory front, including the completion of the copper network switch-off reform and progress regarding the structural separation with the MOC officially declaring that it will issue its resolution during 2025. Moving to the next slide. Our technological and business road map is on track to reach our mid-term KPI, including the completion of the fiber deployment this year, the migration from satellite TV to IP in 2026 and the transition to 5G. I would like to emphasize this page as we approach the end of the current road map, putting legacy revenue and infrastructure behind with primary focus on top line and free cash flow growth, leveraging our core advanced network and innovative AI solutions. In a nutshell, we serve three roles in the AI era: One, enabler as we empower the AI ecosystem with scalable, connectivity, and data infrastructure; two, as a provider as we deliver AI solutions to enterprises and consumers; and three, as an adopter as we harness AI to optimize networks and drive operational efficiency and save costs. In the coming months, we will be able to provide clear KPIs to our investors corresponding to these capabilities. Now turning to Slide 5. Let me point out that free cash flow was actually down this quarter due to tax assessments paid in this current quarter and the receipt of tax refunds in the corresponding quarter. After adjusting for these tax payments, free cash flow was actually down by only 4%. Turning to the next slide. Here, you can really see how even in a year with volatile geopolitical situation, our core business continued to perform and outperform. Total fiber subs as of today reached almost 890,000 with over 2.7 million homes passed. 5G subscriber plans reached 1.3 million and ARPU grew approximately 5%. Yes, ARPU from subscribers, which includes the TV and the fiber activity was up 4% and reached NIS 189. I will now turn the call over to Yochai, who will elaborate further on the group results.

Thank you, Tomer. Moving to Slide 7. We show a 2.4% increase in core revenues due to growth in Bezeq Fixed-Line and Pelephone. Adjusted net profit grew 6.7% due to a decrease in the impairment of assets in yes. Turning to the next slide, we show our operating expenses. Salary expenses increased due to salary increase and a decrease in reimbursement received from National Insurance for employees' in military reserve duty in Bezeq Fixed-Line. Other expenses increased mainly due to a provision for a conditional grant to yes employees. The next slide shows our quarterly operational metrics. Broadband retail ARPU continued to grow with an increase in yes-ARPU from subscribers due to fiber growth. Slide 10 highlights our balanced capital structure with net debt at NIS 4.7 billion and a coverage ratio of 1.4x. The Israeli rating agencies recently reiterated the AA rating. We remain committed to maintaining our high credit rating. Moving to the next slide. In accordance with our 80% dividend payout policy, last week, we distributed NIS 392 million or NIS 0.14 per share. Moving to the next slide, we show the group's updated guidance for 2025. Further to the update this month, we are now focusing for 2025 adjusted EBITDA of NIS 3.75 billion, adjusted net profit of NIS 1.32 billion, CapEx of NIS 1.75 billion and fiber deployment to 2.9 million households. I will now turn the call over to Nir, who will share more detailed results from our Fixed-Line operations.

Thank you, Yochai. Welcome, and good luck.

Thank you.

Turning to Slide 13. Fixed-Line core revenue increased 2.6% to NIS 973 million, mainly due to higher revenues from infrastructure projects, broadband and service and transmission and data communication. Broadband retail fiber customers reached 568,000 today and ARPU rose 5.5% year-over-year to NIS 134. On the following slide, we show Q1 financial highlights with adjusted net profit increased in 1.2% to NIS 261 million, mainly due to lower financial expenses. Free cash flow was impacted by tax assessments paid in the current quarter and the tax refund received in the corresponding quarter. Turning to the next slide, we show continued fiber deployment reaching over 2.7 million homes passed today with approximately 900,000 active subscribers in our fiber network today, resulting in a take-up of 33%. Moving to the next slide, we show the take-up trends. Q1 saw 33,000 retail fiber net adds and 20,000 wholesale fiber net adds. Turning to the next slide. Broadband revenues were up 0.8% despite the decrease in wholesale tariffs from using our passive network. Other revenues growth 27% due to higher revenues from infrastructure projects. With that, I will now turn the call over to Ilan to discuss Pelephone and yes.

Thank you, Nir, and good luck...

Thank you.

Moving to Slide 18. Pelephone postpaid has highest quarterly revenues in seven years, reaching NIS 525 million due to continued growth in 5G subscriber plans and roaming services. On the next slide, we show stable adjusted EBITDA despite the increase in frequency fees resulting from the termination of the MOC discount period. Adjusted net profit was down 8.3% due to higher depreciation and financial expenses. Moving to the next slide, 5G subscriber plans reached approximately 1.3 million subscribers as of today, amounting to 60% of postpaid subscribers. The next slide shows the Q1 key operational metrics as we recorded an additional increase in postpaid subscribers. ARPU rose 4.7% or NIS 2 year-over-year due to higher ARPU from cellular plans and roaming revenues. Turning to yes on Slide 22. Revenues increased 1.3% to NIS 319 million due to higher revenues from the TV and fiber bundle. We continued the migration from satellite to IP with 478,000 IP customers today. We posted record quarterly growth with 12,000 net fiber subscribers, adds reaching 90,000 as of today. Moving to the next slide, we recorded higher adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit due to higher revenues and streamline of expenses. On the next slide, I would like to highlight the NIS 7 year-over-year growth in ARPU from subscribers due to the higher revenues from fiber plans. With that, let me now turn the call back to Yochai.

Thanks, Nir. Moving on to Bezeq International on Slide 25 and 26. We recorded stable core revenues from businesses customers due to higher ICT revenues, offset by lower revenues from businesses ISP and integration services. Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit were down, mainly due to lower revenues from consumers. We are continuing with the implementation of the employees' retirement agreement for the years '25 through 2027. With that, I will open the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] I will now pass the poll for questions. Hi, Tavy.

A couple of short questions. It seems that the EBITDA that you posted missed the consensus that you guys compiled. So I'm wondering where did you think it came from? I mean from what I can tell from my model, it's yes that came out a bit below. So I'm wondering what's going on there? And what's the plan for the rest of the year?

I'll touch the EBITDA level first. From our perspective, EBITDA was as expected, and we also guided for a flattish year ahead of 2026, with few impact to this year EBITDA as we alluded to in the previous quarter. One, we are still providing for the universal fund, as you can see, almost NIS 10 million a quarter across the group, slightly more than that. But also, we have the higher spectrum fees that are significantly higher than last year, that's almost NIS 10 million in a quarter. And other than that, we see roaming gradually recovering. So no other elements and no surprises from our perspective. And we feel very confident for where we track vis-à-vis guidance and vis-à-vis the revised guidance, which was actually slightly higher than expected given the run rate we are seeing. So we feel very comfortable on that. On the yes side, we also had a strong quarter, 12% up on adjusted EBITDA. We had nice to see the stability in subscribers overall and also the growing ARPU, thanks to fiber additions when you see the total company ARPU. But other than that, we have not seen any surprises there as well. This quarter, the yes results are before the Partner TV impact, both on the accounting side and also on the financial side.

Okay. And on the Internet, maybe I got the number wrong, but it showed me that ARPU was up over 5%, but that Internet revenues were up less than 1%. Maybe I got it wrong, but if not, what's the mitigating factor there?

So you see ARPU up with the ongoing conversion between copper and fiber. And -- but we also saw a slight decline in total broadband subs on the Fixed-Line business. However, we see more than making up for that on the total group-wise when you see the 2% growth in retail broadband taking into account, yes. What you also have on broadband revenue is some of these reduced wholesale passive rates that were not in the passive ones that were not taken into effect in Q1 last year.

Okay. And lastly for me, if I may. You mentioned the MOC working on a resolution for the removal of structural separation. What kind of outcome can we expect? Is there any chance that they might say, you know what, it can stay as is. It's been going on for 20 years. No reason to change now or unlikely to happen?

So first, we don't know what the outcome is going to be. What we do know and what changed is that the MOC did announce -- it will announce its resolution on that matter in 2025 as a key target for this year. We are in formal process with them. I'm sure the market will hear more in the coming weeks and months about the process formally from us and from the MOC. But we stand behind the view that it should be fully removed and allow for full merger without any restrictions. So we are working on that on formal advanced work with the MOC, and we'll communicate more information to the market when we have it in the coming weeks.

Hi, Ondrej.

Ondrej from UBS. I have a couple of questions as well, please. Maybe starting with the regulatory environment, which is following up on the previous question. So basically, the other topic that you guys highlight is the copper shutdown project. So if you can maybe give more color on any new specifics coming from the talks that you're having with the MOC, the time line of that or the potential impact that you already are, I guess, internally looking at because we've seen with other incumbents in the space that this can potentially be a material boost to profitability, both from an OpEx leasing as well as CapEx perspective over the midterm. So that's one question.

So I'll touch the copper one. First, within our guidance and also our mid-term guidance, we did not really budget for the full copper -- any of the copper switch-off reform because it was not final before this quarter. And now that it's final and we are very satisfied with the results. We started implementing that. You're right, we will have even as soon as this year, some level of CapEx and OpEx savings from the fact we do not need to roll out new copper to new houses, which is part of the dated universal coverage requirement around copper, which is not there anymore. Secondly, in areas we are fully covered with fiber, we can start gradually, and this is the impact that you see over the next 3 to 5 years to shut down copper. We are not quantifying the outcome of that. But obviously, there is some element of selling copper, which is not huge, but nice. but also energy savings, significantly less malfunctions that happens once you have only a fiber network, and we've seen great precedents within Telefónica and KPN doing the same thing, especially at Telefónica, which is a great, great case study. And also the fact that we don't need to maintain basically maintenance CapEx and expensive copper network. So all these will come to life and will be quantified to the market, but it's premature.

The other question I had was on the partner deal on TV that you signed. So you obviously quantified the impact on your guidance from an EBITDA and net income perspective. But I was also wondering how does that translate into free cash flow uplift? Would that be kind of the post-tax EBITDA equivalent? Or is there anything else attached to this that you have to invest in, for example, on the CapEx side that would reduce that impact? And then if you have any notion of -- does that change at all, for example, the retail dynamics on the TV side whatsoever in the sense that, for example, Partner now has a different cost base relating to TV, so the prices on their product could go up or down. So any color on that, please?

Yes. First, on the second part of the question, nothing to comment about the retail dynamics. We think the competition will stay intense and rational and the same because it's basically a passive platform from that perspective. So that doesn't change anything. From the financial point of view, yes, we have the onetime impact given the write-up at yes on the DCF side, which we quantified and led to the impact on the guidance. You will see this specifically in the yes valuation that will be published in the next quarter. In terms of accounting, in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow impact, I can say that -- and we did publish it's going to be a minimum of high single digit. But realistically, it's probably going to be low to mid-teens. It really depends on the fiber -- on the TV subs that Partner is paying for, which is on a per sub basis with a minimum guarantee. But that's really all we can share on that matter.

We will see it in the end of this year, starting in the end of this year.

And, you mentioned this was a one-off. So there are no recurring revenues attached to this? Or did I miss?

There is recurring revenue and cash flow. There's a one-off significant impact on the net income basis, right, because of the reevaluation of the yes asset based on DCF. There's a one-off impact on net income from that, and there's an ongoing recurring significant revenue and EBITDA impact on yes.

As I said, we'll start in the end of this year, see the impact on EBITDA and free cash flow.

Thank you. Hi, Alex.

Alex Wright from Jefferies. So I have two questions from my side, please. You're clearly well on track to meet the 2.9 million homes passed with fiber by the end of this year. It looks like you've added about another close to 50,000 already this quarter as well. So could you elaborate on whether you're basically building the existing plan faster than expected? Is there some seasonality to watch out for through the rest of the year? Or are you finding new geographies already that you're kind of adding to the schedule in terms of build-out? Just so I can figure out the kind of pathway relative to the guidance that you've given on that. And then the second question is on Pelephone and the service revenue growth there. Can you specify how much of a tailwind from roaming you're seeing at the moment? And what you see as a sustainable underlying growth rate in mobile service revenue at the moment?

I'll touch briefly on the fiber market and Ilan can touch roaming. But you're right, we are on track to complete fiber deployment. 2.9 million would be the max, basically reaching most of the country and the limit of what we can reach from a fiber coverage perspective. Obviously, with the growth of the population, we always have a small tail, but the fiber project, as we know, with the elevated CapEx will be completed before end of this year. And you will see -- you'll start seeing the CapEx reduction going from the 20%-ish CapEx to sales down to the 16% to 18% level we guided to. So that's on that. We do not have a significant CapEx projects. Obviously, we're investing a lot in AI and investing a lot on data infrastructure around that, but we already upgraded the network and deployed what we need for both the business and private sectors to allow for the next probably 5 to 10 years at least. That's on the Fixed-Line side. CapEx will stay elevated on the 5G side in the coming years as we roll out the rest of the country with the different 5G spectrums, both mid band and high band. And I will let -- sorry, Ilan touch on for a second.

On the growth of the revenues in this quarter, it's because of two vectors. One is the growth in 5G plans as more and more customers take the 5G plans, the regular 5G and the 5G MAX, and this is a stand-alone 5G plans that we have. The second is the coming back of Israelis that are going back and flying abroad. It's a great trend for this quarter. And we hope that this trend will be also in the next quarters because as you've seen a few weeks ago -- two weeks ago, there was a stop in the flights to Israel. So we hope it will come back and the trend that started in this quarter will continue to grow in the next few quarters.

Okay. Are you able to quantify the impact of the roaming because I know in previous quarters, you...

I'm not sharing this with -- yes, I am not sharing it.

Next question is from Siyi He from Citibank.

I have two, please. Hopefully, they're quick. The first one is really on the tax assessment that led to the free cash flow miss this quarter. And just wondering if there will be a refund to offset that and whether you're still happy with the current consensus free cash flow for the year, which is at a similar level to 2024? And my second question is just a follow-up on the copper decommission. I understand that it may be too early to quantify the benefits. But I was wondering, when you think about the current customers either through retail or wholesale on your corporate network. Is there a plan to accelerate the migration of to fiber or to other network? Because my understanding is that to extract the biggest benefit from copper is after those customers being migrated off.

So I will touch the first question on free cash flow and tax and Tomer will relate to the copper. So the tax assessment is something that we anticipated. It's in our free cash flow forecast as we provided. And we still stand behind the forecast that we gave. So there is no change from our point of view.

From a comparison perspective, it's probably not going to change what you see on an ongoing regular year basis, not anything unique. On your copper question, the reform, without going too much into detail, actually allow us to start force customers, wholesale and retail, to switch from copper to fiber once we reach an 85% penetration into a certain neighborhood, which is not that complicated. We already have obviously 33% take-up on the network, but that's not the way you should do it in a certain area or a city or a village, once you have 85% network penetration on your fiber, you can switch off basically the copper network and start migrating customers. That's in the first in the next 5 years. After year 5, you can do it to everyone. You don't -- you're not abide by the 85% anymore. So there is basically a flexibility and a path to do that without incur any significant costs. In the initial draft reform, we did have some concerns around some potential spending unnecessary one around that. These concerns were addressed and removed when the final reform was published. So we feel very satisfied with what's out there.

If there are no further questions at this time, I would like to -- sorry, we do have a question. Hi, Sabina from Leader, sorry.

I have one question actually. Can you please provide us some color regarding the competitive environment in the mobile sector? Because we saw Partner reported its results and the trend that I saw in Pelephone results is quite the same. So we see a stable ARPU and we see a stable customer base. Just to understand what is the environment there? And how should we evaluate the path going forward? Should we see any additional improvement, not only seasonality, but maybe some pricing dynamics?

Hi, Sabina, the only thing that I can say that the competition is stable, is here, it doesn't change. So there is no other things that I can add on this matter. Nothing happened.

Okay. So if there are no further questions at this time, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to join us today. Should you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our Investor Relations department. We look forward to speaking to you on the second quarter 2025 earnings call. Thank you.