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

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Bezeq's Second Quarter Earnings Call. I am Yohai Benita, CFO of the Bezeq Group. Joining me today are Mr. Tomer Raved, Bezeq's Executive Chairman; Mr. Nir David, CEO of Bezeq Fixed-Line; and Mr. Ilan Sigal, CEO of Pelephone and yes. Before we begin, please review the safe harbor statement on Slide 2 of our presentation, which applies to any statement made during today's call. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A. With that said, let me now turn the call over to Tomer for his opening remarks. After his introduction, I will continue the presentation of our group's financial highlights, followed by Nir, who will discuss the Bezeq Fixed-Line results; and Ilan, who will cover the results from Pelephone and yes. I will conclude the presentation with Bezeq International results. Tomer?

Thank you, Yohai. I'm glad to see all of you joining us today. The strong results achieved in the second quarter demonstrate the commercial and operational momentum across the group, which reflects consistent growth across all financial metrics as well as the expansion of our customer base across all business segments from subscribers joining Bezeq fiber networks to the growth in Pelephone's 5G subscribers and a higher number of subscribers and profitability at. The critical importance of digital infrastructure during this period has reinforced all our core engines. We anticipate a continued expansion, both through acquisitions and growth supportive investments in the international infrastructure and cable sector. The recent quarters further underscore the success of our strategic compass led by the management teams in all the segments and the continued unprecedented growth in the group's profitability metrics. Looking ahead, in addition to organic growth, we are actively exploring investments, including merger and acquisition opportunities to support the group strategy that will allow us to create tech and synergies and strengthen our competitive advantage in the market. Similarly, we are working vigorously to establish Israel position as a global digital hub by building the submarine cable project. This national project will ensure redundancy and communication security. It will connect us to the global data routes and serve as a strategic growth engine for the country in the years to come. We continue to work intensively with MOC teams in order to remove structural separation and fully merge our TV business into our broadband services and Infrastructure division. Let's now move to Slide 3, where we show Q2 highlights. Core revenues grew 4% to over ILS 2 billion and comp net profit grew by 38%, driven by higher revenues and lower financing and operating expenses after adjusting for the change in yes' valuation in Q2 2025. The Board of Directors recommended a dividend distribution of ILS 415 million, representing 80% of 2026 first half profits. In addition, the company will launch a new buyback plan of ILS 100 million, which is part of our multiyear program of ILS 800 million and follows the completion of our previous buyback plan of ILS 150 million. Fiber subscribers were up 17% and take-up reached 35% with over 3 million home passed. 5G continued to drive cellular market performance and subscriber plans were up 12% year-over-year. ARPU increased across broadband and TV. Pelephone signed an MOU to acquire Wecom, and we continue to develop and grow our digital infrastructure activities with an emphasis on the international submarine cable projects. We hope to have more on these opportunities later this year. On Slide 4, we see the tech and business road map. It's on track to deliver our 2029 KPIs from increased fiber deployment and take-up, expansion of 5G and growth in the TV and fiber bundle. We are building for durable growth, superior customer experience and operating efficiency. On Slide 5, we summarize our key Q2 financial achievements, including a 6.2% increase in comp EBITDA to ILS 978 million. Finally, on Slide 6, we highlight our key KPIs for each of our businesses. Broadband retail ARPU continued to grow year-over-year to [Technical Difficulty]. We recorded an increase in net ARPU due to fiber growth and revenues from the Partner transaction. Pelephone grew 5G subscribers planned to 1.49 million and 5G Max subscribers grew to 217,000 today. We are on track to reach our target of 300,000 5G Max subscribers by year-end. I will now hand the call back to Yohai who will review our financial in more details.

Thank you, Tomer. Let's turn to Slide 7 for the group's second quarter highlights. Core revenues, comp EBITDA and comp net profit showed strong growth this quarter across all group segments. Core revenue showed 4% growth and comp net profit grew 38% due to higher revenues and low financing and operating expenses after adjusting for the change in valuation in the second quarter of 2025. Moving to Slide 8, we show our results for the first half of 2026. Comp net profit grew 19%, mainly due to lower financing expenses and free cash flow grew 24% due to tax payments and refunds along with changes in working capital. Turning to Slide 9. We show our Q2 operating expenses. Operating and depreciation expenses were impacted by changes in valuation in the second quarter of 2025. After excluding the impact of the changes in valuations, operating expenses decreased approximately ILS 35 million and depreciation expenses increased approximately ILS 15 million. Slide 10 shows our quarterly operational metrics. We recorded growth in telephone subscribers and wholesale broadband subscribers and achieved higher ARPUs for retail broadband and yes. Bezeq Group retail broadband subscribers increased by 1% with growth in yes fiber bundle subscribers offsetting a decline in Fixed-Line retail broadband subscriber in the second quarter. Slide 11 highlights our balanced capital structure. Net debt increased slightly by ILS 303 million to ILS 5.2 billion with a net debt to comp EBITDA ratio at 1.6x. Turning to shareholder remuneration on Slide 12. As Tomer mentioned earlier, the Board of Directors recommended a cash dividend distribution of ILS 415 million, and we launched a new buyback plan of ILS 100 million, which is part of our multiyear program of ILS 800 million. On Slides 13 through 15, we show our 2026 outlook and 2029 targets, which are unchanged. We will continue to focus on maintaining our AA level rating and strive to increase shareholder remuneration. I will now hand the call to Nir for Fixed-Line results.

Thank you, Yohai. Our strong second quarter results demonstrate our strength and availability to continue recording consistent growth across all core metrics, driven by the company's strategy plan. We will continue to implement our strategy, invest in advanced infrastructure and future growth agents, leading in innovation and provide our customers with the most advanced and high quality solutions. Turning to Slide 16. Fixed-Line core revenue increased 1.9% to ILS 999 million, driven by higher revenues from transmission and data communications. Cloud and digital services and infrastructure projects, fiber deployment continue as we reached over 3 million home passed with a take-up rate of 35% -- following -- in the following slide, we show Q2 financial highlights. Comp EBITDA rose 6.1% and comp net profit grew 20%, driven by higher revenues and lower operating and financing expenses. CapEx was down by 10% and free cash flow in the first half of 2026 was ILS 624 million compared to ILS 150 million in the corresponding period. Turning to the next slide. We show continued fiber deployment reaching approximately 3.04 million home passed with almost 1.1 million active subscribers in our fiber networks today. They represented 73% of total broadband subscribers and the take-up rate of 35%. Retail broadband ARPU continued to grow and rose 4.4% year-over-year to ILS 142. Moving to Slide 19, we show the take-up trend. Retail fiber take-up reached 655,000 and wholesale fiber take-ups reached 406,000. Turning to Slide 20. Broadband revenue were down 1.2% due to the Ministry of Communication decrease in wholesale tariff. Transmission and data revenue grew 2.6% to ILS 317 million due to higher revenues from metro, transmission services and digital and cloud revenues increased 3.3%, driven by higher revenues from virtual exchanges and cloud services. Other revenue rose 19% due to higher revenues from infrastructure projects. Moving to Slide 21, we show our operating expenses. As fiber deployment and penetration has grown, we are seeing the result in lower operating expenses, which decreased by 18% due to lower expenses of fiber installation and materials. With that, I will now turn the call over to Ilan to discuss Pelephone and yes.

Thank you, Nir. The quarterly results reflect the successful implementation of our strategic initiatives in recent years at Pelephone and yes. The companies demonstrate continued growth, improved profitability and the strengthening of their competitive positioning while consistently investing in infrastructure, innovation and customer experience. On Slide 22, we show revenues, comp EBITDA and comp net profit, all of which increased despite the impact of the war with Iran on roaming revenues. We delivered strong subscriber momentum this quarter. Postpaid subscribers increased by 21,000. 5G postpaid subscribers grew by 48,000, reaching approximately 1.5 million or 63% of postpaid subscribers today. In parallel, 5G Max subscriber plans continue to expand, reaching 220,000 today, reflecting customers' increasing demand for premium connectivity. We signed an MOU to acquire Wecom, and we are currently working to finalize the agreement soon. As expected, given the war-related roaming impact, ARPU declined modestly year-over-year to ILS 45, a decrease of 2.2% or ILS 1. Turning to Slide 23. You can see the detailed financial performance this quarter, which reflects these dynamics. Comp EBITDA grew 2.2% and comp net profit grew 6.3% despite the impact of the war on roaming revenues. Free cash flow was impacted by changes in the working capital, mainly from payments to employees due to signing of a new collective and the timing of end-user equipment orders. On Slide 24, we highlight continued growth in 5G adoption with 63% of postpaid customers now on 5G plans. We remain well positioned to capture future data and service revenue upside. On Slide 25, we show revenues from services and ARPU. Revenues from services were up almost 1% despite the impact of the war with Iran on roaming revenues. Moving to yes on Slide 26. We see yes delivered a strong quarter with revenues growing 8.7% to ILS 348 million for the highest quarterly revenues since Q4 2018. ARPU reached a record of ILS 204 driven by continued growth in the TV+ fiber bundle and revenues from the partner transaction. Slide 27 highlights our key financial metrics in Q2. We recorded the highest comp EBITDA and the comp net profit since Q2 2023, driven by high revenues and low expenses. This is the second consecutive quarter of comp net profit and the first full quarter to reflect the full impact of the migration from satellite broadcasting. Moving to Slide 28. Fiber subscribers increased to 150,000 today, while migration to IP continues with 90% of U.S. customers now on IP platforms. With that, I will hand the call back to Yohai for Bezeq International's results.

Thank you, Ilan. Finally, turning to Bezeq International on Slide 29. Bezeq International delivered a solid performance in the second quarter with revenues from business customers increasing 9% year-over-year to ILS 252 million, driven primarily by higher equipment sales and continued growth in cloud activities. Comp EBITDA grew 5.4% and comp net profit totaled ILS 11 million compared to ILS 3 million in the corresponding quarter last year, mainly due to higher revenues. Bezeq International is well positioned as demand for cloud, data and enterprise connectivity solution continues to grow. With that, I will open the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] First question from David Kaplan from Psagot.

I don't have to say my name, you did that for me. So I have a couple of questions, and I'll try and keep it as short as possible. When I look at -- the first question I'm going to have is on KPIs around the Fixed-Line. I think if you look at the group fiber overall, when I combine the fiber subscribers and the Fixed-Line business and the television business, we see some nice growth, 18% year-over-year and a little bit over 3% in the quarter. How do you think about that -- I mean, first of all, I think it speaks to why it's clear that the removal of structural separation would be a massive boon for Bezeq. And if you can give us an update where we are on the regulatory front on those things, that would be appreciated. But secondly, how do you think about that strategically when it comes to what appears to be some form of cannibalization of the Fixed-Line business and their fiber subscribers from -- yes, from the TV subsidiaries. While on the one hand, we see ARPU in both of those companies growing where fiber is involved, I imagine the pricing is not exactly the same. So that's the first question.

So I'll just take that. First, your analysis is correct. Overall, we look at the group total fiber subs, retail subs, when you look at Bezeq Fixed-Line and yes combined, and you see growth consecutively. The economics are the same or even better when you think about TV bundling because the wholesale rate that yes is paying to Bezeq is a wash from a group perspective, right? So there's no cannibalization de facto. You get both -- from both type of subs, right, fiber revenue and you have incremental TV revenue when you look at yes. So yes, removal structural separation makes a lot of sense and also brings value to the company and to the consumer who pays lower for the bundle, but obviously, incremental revenue and incremental subs for the group. So that's exactly how we think about it. And that's why you see first the take-up growing, fiber sub growing and also total broadband subs when you add fiber and copper remain stable even when you see the retail subs at Bezeq Fixed-Line alone going down.

Sorry. And anything to say on the regulatory front or any updates there or nothing currently?

On the regulatory front, we are in professional dialogue with the Minister of Communication and the teams that are working with them from the Minister of Finance and antitrust authorities. The process is close to completion, and we hope they will announce in the coming weeks. We obviously cannot ignore from the impact on timing from the geopolitical and political backdrop, but we believe there will be a resolution in the coming weeks.

Okay. And just one quick question on the KPIs in the mobile business. ARPU doesn't seem to be tracking upwards as you are very successfully migrating 4G subs to 5G. So I'm curious, is that -- does that have to do with subsidies? Or are there -- is there something else going on in there? And why don't we see the impact of the migration on ARPU?

Yes. The ARPU is pretty stable. Obviously, you have some impact from roaming and a lot of transition into one-off in the business sector, especially government customers that have been migrating this year with the large auction that came out tender. Besides that, there are no other trend or element. Obviously, there's competition in the market, but the upgrade from 4G to 5G continues to drive ARPU upwards, and we stand behind our kind of ILS 50 2029 targets.

I'll add -- every year, the past 3 years, you see ARPU growing around ILS 1 a year. But this year, because of the impact of the war on roaming, it slightly went down by ILS 1 only this quarter. Now we see that the roaming is coming back because Israelis are flying and travel, and we believe that the roaming revenues will go back at the same place they were 2 quarters ago.

Okay. Great. And my last one really quick, just on the balance sheet. Net debt seems to have picked up this quarter. I'm sure it has something to do with the dividend that is being paid and with the buybacks. How do you view that going forward? Because I think you did have goals for -- to continue on a deleveraging track?

We do not have goals on the delevering track. That's very important. We like where we are from a leverage perspective. And I think we discussed totally on our letter of investment and the pyramid that discussed how we think about capital allocation. So first, maintenance CapEx is important. Secondly, we maintain our current leverage level. We are not -- we don't have any intention to delever further. We like where we are, the 1.5, 1.6 net debt to EBITDA, AA rating. We had a lot of financial flexibility. And as a result, we are looking at, a, additional M&A and investment opportunities, including subsea cables and Wecom and b, increasing return to shareholders via dividends and incremental buybacks.

Next question we have is from Rohit from Citi.

I have 3, please. Firstly, on the guidance and looking at the comp EBITDA guidance of ILS 3.7 billion to ILS 3.8 billion, and I look at your performance in 1H, you're already doing 3.7% comp EBITDA growth in 1H. Now that leaves a lot of headroom in 2H. I mean even with the decline in EBITDA in 2H, you still achieved top end of your guidance. I'm just trying to understand why so cautious about 2H. Are you seeing any kind of pressure in the second half? Second question is on the Fixed-Line operating expenses, 18% decline there. Is that the kind of run rate do you expect now in terms of operating expenses going forward in Fixed-Line? Or is this just a phasing probably you see a bit more increase there. And last question is basically the follow-up on the roaming charges. So if you can give us any kind of color in terms of what your mobile service revenue growth would have been if you assume your roaming revenue was flat in this quarter?

I'll start. You guys can continue. First, we -- so the first question was around.

The guidance.

The guidance, yes. So look, we do not expect any softness in H2. You're right that we have a lot of headroom, and we feel very strong with our guidance. We will update the market if we -- and as per our disclaimer, if we see deviation of more than 10% from the midrange, and we feel very comfortable with the range. And if there's any updates, we'll definitely update the market. We feel very confident with the trends and the tailwinds in Q2 and also going into Q3, especially if the geopolitical situation stays stable with the roaming question, we feel very comfortable with the guidance that we gave and also with the long-term one. On OpEx?

On OpEx, on Bezeq Fixed-Line, I can say that part of the reasons for the decrease in the expenses relates to the lower costs related to the fiber activity. We see less expenses in this area. On the other hand, I need to say that we also have the internal connection fees that we used to have in the past, now we don't have. So it's something that ended last year also part of the reason for the decrease quarter-over-quarter. And also part of it is a decrease in Bezeq store activity, which we managed to compensate in other revenues that we managed to stream this quarter. So you don't see a decrease in revenue. Of course, we see a strong growth in Bezeq Fix-Line revenue and still the expenses went down. So part of it will continue for sure.