Megacable Holdings, S. A. B. de C. V. (MEGACPO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Megacable's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. With us this morning from Megacable, we have Mr. Enrique Yamuni, CEO; Mr. Raymundo Fernandez, Deputy CEO; and Mr. Luis Zetter, CFO. Let me remind you that the information discussed in today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements on the company's future financial performance and perspectives and prospects, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Megacable undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Enrique Yamuni. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. During the first quarter of 2022, the macroeconomic environment remained complex. At the quarter end, the estimated GDP growth remains below 2%, leading to a more conservative annual growth estimate for 2022 from the original 8%. In addition, the estimated annual inflation rate at the quarter end is higher than 7.3%, almost reaching 8%, while the economy activity recorded 0 growth in the month of February. However, and in spite of even in the challenging environment, the company continues to see growth opportunities as bandwidth demand continues to rise due to the adoption of trends like streaming and gaming in hybrid works streams schemes continue to be adopted, supporting the need for connectivity. As this trend remains, there is room for growth in the telco industry. It is in that context that Megacable continued recording net adds across the 3 services of the mass market and significant year-over-year growth. In unique subscribers also we had very good growth. Results that were also reflected in solid financial figures as the company reached double-digit revenue growth when compared to the same quarter of last year, also supported by extraordinary contribution from the corporate segment. The financial growth has supported by the prevailing necessity for our services in a market that should continue to grow. In that sense, in March, we carried out speed upgrades to all our subscribers and the company is aware of the increasing bandwidth requirements, it is important to mention that these migrations were supported by the network investments we have carried out over the last periods. Related to our MVNO product, the company's interest is to grow in this business unit and the AT&T partnership that we announced during the quarter follows that line, as it would allow the company to strengthen its service in specific territories. This does not mean that Megacable would not use or support ALTAN anymore, and we will remain ALTAN's shareholder clients and suppliers. We're proud to our effective, I'm sorry, we're proud of our efficiency in terms of capital expenditures. As of this quarter, the organic CapEx to revenue rate remains in the low 20s before special projects, which led us to be optimistic about the levels we could reach from the current mid-30s overall once we conclude with the initiatives we are executing. As per the projects we are developing and regarding the Next Generation Video service, Xview Plus continues to post interaction rates higher than 70 million per month. Furthermore, during this quarter, we were able to fully integrate 2 of the most popular and most built platforms to Xview Plus, which were Disney Plus and Star Plus, which will significantly contribute to the subscribers preference for our service. Also Megacable continued to make steady progress in the network evolution project, which includes Zapopan migration, which is practically completed with an advance of more than [ 90% ] as well as the increase of bandwidth capacity for the remaining HFC territories with DOCSIS technology. It is because of these investments that we were able to duplicate the capacity for our network in both territories. Regarding Megacable 2024, we continue to advance in the rolling out and activation of new kilometers, and we are currently going through the construction stage, which, like any other project of this magnitude has been facing some minor setbacks, However, the project continues to move in the right direction. It is really important to highlight that the inherent benefits of Megacable 2024 project will become increasingly tangible over the second half of the year. If you recall, this initiative of entering new markets will allow us to double the size of the company in terms of revenues, EBITDA and [indiscernible]. Also, due to the company's strategy to guarantee its supplies in advance, there has been no significant delay in the reception of equipment and material as this was ordered by anticipation. We have already received some of the materials we will be using in our expansion plan for this year. On another note, Megacable has always committed to the development of the communities in which it operates, to practices that support social participation and environmental awareness. In that line, I'm pleased to announce that we recently received the social responsibility distinction by the CMF. This detention represents the first milestone in many to come regarding ESG practices. Also, I would like to announce that at the General Ordinary Shareholders meeting held yesterday, shareholders approved a dividend payment of MXN 2.4 billion, representing 20% of 2021 consolidated EBITDA, in line with our dividend policy. The payment will be carried out in one installment on May 26. To conclude, since we have practically completed our network evolution project during the following periods, most of our efforts will be focused on the Megacable 2024 project execution. We are convinced that this initiative will gradually accelerate our results over the second half of the year despite the delays faced in some cities as we seek new markets aligned to our standards of quality and profitability. I will turn now the call over to Raymundo to discuss our operational performance. Raymundo, please go ahead.

Thanks, Enrique, and Good morning, everyone. The quarterly results continue to reflect the value offering of the company with net add growth, both in terms of ad views and unique subscribers, which has been translated into double-digit revenue growth and the highest margin in the industry. In that line, I would like to highlight the bandwidth incremental capacity in both our HFC and chip bond technologies, which have allowed us to carry out the process to improve the speed of all our subscribers. This migration resulted in having the majority of our subscribers at the end of the quarter getting speeds of 50 Mbps or more compared to 13% before the migration. We continue with a clear commitment to improve customer service, and this is a clear example of that. Moving on to results, on an annual basis, unique subscribers grew 4.8%, EBITDA net addition of 190,000 subscribers, of which 26,000 were incorporated this quarter, resulting in a unique subscriber base of almost 4.2 million. Following our triple and quadruple play packages, commercialization strategy, RGUs increased 7.9% from [ 9.8 ] million in the first quarter of 2021 to [ 10.5 ] million this quarter. Additionally, RGUs per unique subscriber amounted to 2.52 this period compared to 2.45 in the same quarter last year. Breaking down by service, Internet shops amounted to 3.9 million, in line with the 303,59,000 net additions recorded for the year and the quarter, respectively, representing growth of 8.4% and 1.5%. In the Video segment, subscribers increased from 3.4 million in the first quarter of 2021 to 3.5 million this quarter, representing 106,000 net additions. On a sequential basis, the nonsubscribers record a slight increase, maintaining practically the same levels. Xview Plus platform subscribers amounted to 2.6 million, in line with the more than 1.1 million net additions of the last 4 months, of which 155,000 were recorded this quarter. Regarding the telephony service, subscribers increased from 2.7 million in the first quarter of 2021 and 3.6 million -- 3.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 3.1 million this quarter, representing a growth of 3% and 2% or 362, 000 and 58,000 net additions, respectively. Meanwhile, the MVNO service subscribers only increased from 428,000 in the last quarter to 432,000 this period. During this quarter, a change in the subscriber recognition policy was made establishing that after a certain period of not recharging the services, the line will be disconnected. As a result of the vote, there was a onetime effect on the number of net additions of the MVNO platform since only [ 4.2000 ] net additions were recalled this quarter. Excluding this effect, approximately 70,000 net ads should have been recovered. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this item has no impact on the revenues of this service, which can be clearly seen in the 9% growth of the ARPU of the mobile service when compared to the same quarter of last year. Turning to ARPU per unique subscriber, this recorded an annual growth of 2.7%, reached MXN 422.4, driven by an increase in most of the ARPU services. In this regard, on an annual basis, ARPU increased 2% for Internet and 4% for telephony. Meanwhile, video remained virtually at the same level of last year. Some rates remained practically flat to the previous quarter due to our core potential campaigns since economy is not at the best. Additionally, it is important to note that despite the solid growth registering our subscriber base over the last 2 years, some rate levels are even below than the pre-pandemic period. In the Corporate Telecom segment, the efforts made to align the operations to current market conditions are increasingly reflected in results as Metrocarrier and ho1a recorded double-digit annual growth rate of 20% and 18%, respectively, while MCM increased 8%, representing the strongest growth in the last 7 quarters. With these results, the Corporate Telecom segment is once again at pre-pandemic levels. We anticipate that this growth trend continues in the coming periods, hand-in-hand with increased operational structure to be generated in Tijuana, Mexicali, Chihuahua, Aguascalientes and some other cities where Metrocarrier and ho1a have recently kicked off operations. To conclude, I would like to emphasize that the company's strategy remains oriented towards providing an attractive value offering, futured by its quality technology edge, all the above leverage on operating efficiency through the execution of our 3 flagship projects, in network revolution, our NGV video platform and Mega 2024 for the expansion towards new territories. With this, I conclude my remarks. Now I would like to hand the call over to Luis, who will share broader color on the financial results.

Thank you, Raymundo. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. During the first quarter 2022, consolidated revenues recorded an annual increase of 10%, totaling MXN 6.6 billion, driven by the double-digit growth obtained in the corporate segment as well as by the higher subscriber base achieved in the mass segment. In that way, Corporate Telecom segment revenues increased 16% from MXN 911 million in the first quarter of 2021 to MXN 1.1 billion this quarter, its best performance over the last 2 years, following the growth of 20%, 18% and 8% reported by Metrocarrier, ho1a and MCM respectively due to the greater dynamism in the Corporate segment and higher revenue in the connectivity sector. Likewise, the Mass segment revenue amounted to MXN 5.4 billion, 9% higher than the same period last year, in line with the performance registered in all services where broadband increases 10%; video 3%; telephony 18%; and mobile 124%. As a result of all the above, the company's revenue mix was integrated by 83% from Mass segment and 17% from corporate sector. As a result of all the above, all the company revenue mix was integrated by 83% from the Mass segment and 17% from the Corporate segment. Turning to cost and expenses, the cost of services increased 12% this quarter from MXN 1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021 to MXN 1.7 billion following the higher operation volume and a higher mix in the equipment sales in ho1aa, with the Corporate segment and the increase of the mobile services business. In the mass market, likewise, operating expenses were up 13% on an annual basis, amounting to MXN 1.6 billion. Quarterly consolidated EBITDA amounted MXN 3.2 billion, an annual growth of 8%, implying a sequential increase of 150 basis points in the EBITDA margin, which stood at 49.2% EBITDA for cable operations totaled MXN 3.1 billion, increased 8% year-over-year and recording a margin of 50.8%. During the quarter, net income reached MXN 1.2 billion, 6% more than the figure recorded in the same period of 2021, with a net margin of 17.8%. Moving into the balance sheet, net debt was up in [indiscernible] sequential comparative to MXN 4.8 billion in the period, in part because the commercial credit terms from the GPON migration are getting due, although Megacable has a solid cash level and leverage remains at the very comfortable levels. In view of the aforementioned, the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 0.39x and the interest coverage ratio was 15.89x, both remained at very healthy levels. It is important to note that even when a portion of the debt matures next July, the company is already analyzing various financing alternatives to select the ones that best it needs to strengthen its financial position. In addition, I would like to emphasize that Megacable's adequate liquidity levels will allow the MXN 2.4 million dividend payment that Enrique mentioned, as well as to continue with the investment in activities as planned. In this regard, CapEx reached MXN 2,340 million in this quarter, mainly due to the network expansion plan and GPON migration. This investment will be reflected in growth for the coming periods. Lastly, although our outlook is positive for the remainder of the year, we will continue to closely monitor the evolution of the main operating and financial metrics to maintain an orderly and sustainable growth. With this, I conclude my remarks. Now let me turn back the call to the operator to open the line for Q&A. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Marcelo Santos with JPMorgan.

I have 2. The first is if you could comment a little bit more on the pace of broadband ads. It was a little bit below your peers. And given that you have an aggressive goal of doubling the network, how could we see this ads picking up? And what was the reason for the little bit softer ads? And the second question is about the increase in churn. I understand you wrote in the release it's still below pre-pandemic levels. But is the cause more economic related? Or is it more competitive related?

Sure. Thank you, Marcelo. Good question, both. In terms of the pace of the net adds for broadband that you commented, what we try to do is to continue to pay as we said in our remarks. We want to have a healthy growth in terms of revenues and subscribers. During the quarter, we trained our commercial strategy in this. Competition came, as you know, with some of the offers in the mid of the quarter, on of the total play and income because it's a very small portion of our systems, but for the rev it came. So we adjust also our strategy in that part by the end of the quarter because we felt that our offer that was aimed to increase revenue was too conservative. So part of the deceleration of the net ads came from a much more strict commercial strategy that was solved and put more effort into the end of the quarter. That's not the only reason Also, we felt that the economy in the market is a little bit tight and that's why we needed to adjust. At the end, my message is that we grew during the quarter in line revenues, net ads in what we call a healthy level. The other reason that affects us is that we put all our efforts in the construction of kilometers for the MC 2024. As you can see, the number of contracts during the quarter was below what we were building before. And that's because it's not the same to expand the existing territories than to go to new territories. We need to build sites. We need to build operational offices. We need to have the materials. And as Enrique said, even though a project of this magnitude can face some difficulties, we were expecting that. We're track on line with that. But the effect is that the number of subscribers and the market that we're taking will come for the second half of the year, not that much this. So it's a combination. The second one is the short and you asked whether it's economy and competition. As I said, we train our retention commercial promotions and offers to the subscribers. We are more aggressive in retaining subscribers because we feel also that our subscribers are facing some of the economic inflation and probably are over there. Of course, some may come from competition, but the majority is more from the economy since we have the lower ARPU in the systems where we are. According to us, we continue to provide growth even though it's lower. You can expect that to be fixed as soon as our projects of MC 2024 will materialize in new kilometers and the new aggressive campaign will come back to the market. I don't know if I answered your question myself.

Yes, yes, thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Andres Coello with Scotiabank.

Luis, we saw that CapEx to sales this quarter was at approximately 37%. I'm wondering if you are confirming guidance for the year at 40% of sales, CapEx to sales, and probably you have any thoughts for next year for 2023 in terms of CapEx? And Raymundo, I have a question for you too, if I may. We are seeing in the web page that the coverage of the FTTH footprint in Mexico City, now which is a very large area of the northern part of the city. It seems that you are now very close to many important areas like Polanco, like Loma [indiscernible] and now Calpan. So I'm wondering what are your plans for Mexico City for the year if we can expect more coverage in Mexico City before the end of the year?

The CapEx to sales -- and thank you for the question, Andres. In the CapEx to sales, we continue with our projections and we think that we will be in the high 30 for this year, basically the CapEx. And for the following years, again, we think that, again 2023 will be high, or CapEx intensive in '24, reducing in 2025.

Let me add Andres on Luis' comment. What we really like to address is that our existing organic or existing areas of CapEx, okay, is in the low 20s, which is a very pretty healthy CapEx of revenue. The amount that you are seeing of that 37% of what Luis is telling you that we feel is going to be between mid-30 to high 302, more on the high 30s. It's because we have all this MC2024 expansion that, of course, is taking -- CapEx is taking cash flow from the company, but will be materialized in our view of doubling the size of the company in the future and making the same efficient company that we are in our market migrate to new markets. So we're going through that process of having a high CapEx with no subscribers coming from that CapEx that we are putting. But again, the low 20s is a very, very healthy CapEx for a telco company here in Latin America. That will be the extra comment I would like to do. And thank you for looking in our footprint. We're very proud that, and you can see that we were growing. What you see is the growth of kilometers that we have that are in the process to be activated or terminated. And one of your comments, it takes some time now to develop that network that we have. We have big plans for Mexico City. We cannot be out or left out of the largest city in our country. You will continue to see the expansion of the network. I would like it to ourselves whether it's going to be to be Polacco and the upper economic levels, we will cover both as well as some core economic levels, we will cover all the areas where we feel that we have the best potential to grow in terms of kilometers compass and success of competition so far. We are growing very well in those cities. But as I said, the process, as Enrique mentioned that. The process of building 2024 will be filled in the second semester. Again, we will love to be and we will increase and double and triple the amount of kilometers we have in Mexico City. Yes, we will do that this year.

Our next question is from [ Luca Brendan ] with Bank of America.

My question is regarding the ARPU for the Internet business. It grew around 2% year-over-year despite most of the expansion coming in from fiber that should have a higher ARPU. So I want to know if you can give us a little bit more color on what is happening in the ARPU for the Internet business, if you are having more aggressive offers for new regions? And also if we can expect to see some acceleration on that for the coming quarters?

Thank you for the question, [ Luca. ] The ARPU -- the ARPU output that we have, whether it's broadband in general, remember that since we're selling triple play and we have an existing base, the discounts that we account to each service can neglect a little bit on that part. We'd like to address our unit ARPU. Unit ARPU is growing pretty much between 1.5% to 2% on a year-over-year basis. Right now, we have 2% over the last year. We did not have it on a strong sequential basis over fourth quarter because in the fourth quarter we have the effect of the back-to-school campaign that we were very successful in July, August and September, that will reflect an increase of the ARPU over on that fourth quarter and not that most on August and September. So we have a remarkable fourth quarter. This one is still is 2% above the ARPU that we have on first quarter of 2021. You can expect for us to continue to have a trend, which will be a slight increase in unit ARPU because of everything we are doing. We do not expect the ARPU to increase significantly because we are penetrating the lowest part of the pyramid in the existing markets. And even though in the new markets we have an aggressive campaign that won't increase significantly ARPU. The ARPU will come from more products that we sell on the video part, like apps, XView that continue to grow and the migration of speech. We're very proud to tell you, as I said, that now the majority of our subscribers are not in 20 megabits or even 30, are in 50 megabits. So that proves that our investments on the GPON evolution and the evolution of our network are not only aim to new markets, but that aims to protect and to provide a better bandwidth and product to our subscribers. So we have a better product and ARPU will continue to increase its line. That will be my message.

And if I may do a comment here, this is Enrique. It's not -- that's a part that ARPUs in fiber would -- are higher than ARPUs in our HFC. The ARPUs come from service and speeds that you can provide and also the condition of the market. I think that we are doing a good job there. And you remember that we mostly sell packages and most of them are triple play. So the subscriber gets very high and very good discounts by getting the deal of the triple play. Over time, I think we will have to move a little bit over to sell more naked Internet and products like that because as the economy tightens because people will try to be more efficient in their expenditures at home. But so far, we're still trying to push the triple play and the double play. But I mean, if the market demands, we for sure, move to other products like naked Internet. Thank you very much.

Our next question is from Alejandro Chavelas with Credit Suisse.

Congratulations on the results. Just one from my side. I was a little bit confused. On the one side, you did mention that corporate was already entering several markets such as Mexicali, Chihuahua, Tijuana, Aguascalientes. So that seems to be on track with the expansion plan. But on the other hand, you mentioned some delays. So on delays you mean, delays of equipment arriving for other cities that you will enter afterwards? Or do you mean construction in other cities, like to understand a little bit more that comment.

Sure, Alejandro. We're very proud of the results of corporate, we kicked off new cities. The results that you see on 20% of Metrocarrier and 18% of ho1a, do not consider still significantly those new cities because they were made pretty much on the second part of this first quarter. But it's for real, that we're in new cities and launching that. So you can expect corporate to provide and continue to provide good numbers for the rest of the year. I will -- even though we don't want to give you a full guidance on that, I can tell you that you can expect the levels of Corporate segment to continue to be pretty much because of the opening of new series and the good results that we have on the existing ones so far. Regarding the delay of unit of equipment and materials, we do prevent this when we announce the MC2024, which was pretty much on the third quarter of last year. We are on track with minor delays on that. What we are besides the delays that are, as I said, minus on equipment and everything because we order those in advance. Of course, we had it before some inventory or projects that we always keep. So we were using that to provide and to continue to. The delays don't come pretty much from those materials, even though as I said, this is slightly delayed, small delay. But comes also from the operational parts of finding the offices, the site, building those, getting the permits. That's what we are -- in general, we are giving you all the details. You can expect that this project continues to grow. If we have some delays, it will be a minor impact of what we promised you before. We feel very, very happy to tell you that you will see the results in the second half, you will start seeing results all over because we're not only building 2 or 3 cities. We're massively expanding the operation of Megacable in several 10s of cities. -- several cities. So our operations is hard to imagine what is going on. I can assure you that we have capital 40 series are going into production at this time. Of minor prices, mid-sizes, we'd like to keep it, but we are very aggressive and you will feel that because we are serious on that way.

Thank you for the very clear estimation. Perhaps just a follow-up. I don't know if you have shared this. Do you have the penetration of broadband within the expansion regions of Megacable for the 2024 plan that you can share?

Alejandro, I think it's too early to establish the level of acceptance in the new cities that we are building the network. Remember that we have Mexico City, Zapopan and Monterrey, has really activated kilometers and operating. So the other -- the remainder number of cities is very small. So it will get -- I think it will confuse the analysts and the people in general.

Yes, I meant the -- for the overall expansion plan, the 2024 expansion plan, the penetration of broadband in the cities that you -- the average from the city that you will enter?

What we expect is what you're talking about.

Sorry?

Look, the penetration of broadband in the cities where we expect to go, it varies, but everything is between 55%, 60% to 70% depending on the size of the city, really is around 60% to 65%. We believe as a company that the growth of broadband will continue to be. We, for sure, will reach the mid-70s to 80% of broadband. Maybe with good economy will go higher than that in the low 80s. That's why we have aggressive marketing campaigns. And what we expect to have in those markets as we announced, and we say, we expect our penetration to be between 20% to 30%. That's what we want to keep off those markets. If we get 20%, 80%, sure we'll get to 30%. If we are in 60%, sure we will look for 20%. Those are our numbers. We proved to be efficient in the market where we have a much more higher penetration than what I'm telling you, but we are conservative in what we are telling you. Maybe we will do better than that.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Carlos Legarreta with GBM.

More than a question, I would like to have a clarification from the strategic plan that you guys have. It seems to me like last year and during the Investor Day, you were talking about a horizon of 3 to 4 years to double the size of the homes passed. But from more recent conversations, it is my impression that you're aiming to do that faster in 2 or 3 years. Obviously, that has an impact on the CapEx levels that we will see throughout this year. So I think it will be very important for the market and investors to really understand the intention that you guys have going forward.

Thank you, Carlos, and good point as well as the other words. We -- as we told you in the Investor Day, we're aiming to double and decide pretty much in 4 years, that's the plan that we have. In order to do that, we need to have the network and the cities before that, because maturity of those markets could reach the penetration that we expect takes between 12 to 24 months. So we aim with everything we have to build up the number of home [indiscernible] in the next 3 years and expect to doubling the size of the company in terms of revenues, EBITDA that we announced in the next 4 years. So you can come to 12 months after that to start seeing those results 4 to 5 years.

So basically, the CapEx -- the majority of the CapEx will be spent in 2022, 2023, 2024. And the -- maybe we will have some minor CapEx in 2025 as the last piece of the project, but we are trying to achieve the goals. That's why we call the project Mega calendar 2024.

And mostly related to CPE equipment that will be installed as soon as you continue to have more subscribers. The main CapEx that we have right now is in infrastructure facilities, network and everything to be able to provide the service.

Exactly, thanks. And I mean, it may be just 1 quarter might be not enough to understand, but it seems to me like the number of homes passed that you built during this quarter has to really, really pick up in order for you to reach the target of rolling out on those on path in the next 3 years. Can you comment on this? Do you expect a significant pickup? Or as you said, perhaps there have been some delays there?

No, sure, Carlos, we're looking to our numbers. I mean, of course, we count kilometers that are activated. To have the kilometers activated you just don't need to build the network on the street. You need to have the facility. Facilities include power, air conditional, surveillance, securities requires to build the site, require the operational. That's why you don't see that because we start really building everything that you see this year. When we plan and we design and we get the approval and we announced that was in the third quarter. Normally, you start seeing new kilometers after 6 months. But I can tell you that we are not only doing that in one city. We have all the Megacable infrastructure spread among several cities. So you will surely see kilometers in second quarter, but mostly in the third quarter and fourth quarter. That will be where we aim. At that time, the problem will be to have all the commercial effort to install that at the same time, everything. But we should have some answers for that on the other units, not on the building of the construction side. So you will see the revolution coming to the market more in the third and fourth quarter for sure on that part.

There are no live questions at the moment. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any questions from the webcast.

Okay. Thank you. We have a first question from Eric Veracruz from Select. Could you give us some color of what kind of projects you all are doing? I mean, networks, cybersecurity, if possible.

Sure. Let me --let me -- we both, Luis and myself will address that. I don't know if Enrique want to say that. Ho1a is our thick solution company on top of the connectivity of Metrocarrier. It provides secure service and Internet for the connectivity of Metrocarrier, and it's very well and into that thing, but also into the sale of infrastructure, network equipment. So what the big project we have and why the good result of ho1a during the quarter, we increased and the market that did not took that investment in 2020 or 2021. Now we feel that this is investing into the network and the expansion of the capacity that they have into their offices. That means routers, switching, Wi-Fi, security and everything. The thing that we have other than ho1a and we want to -- we want to push this into more projects on the peak side, and we are working on that. And you will see that in the future. But right now, the results come more from network equipment. Network has a lower margin. That's why we have, during the quarter some impact like impact because we still continue to have the highest margin in the industry, and it's not a bad margin that we have. But the impact that we have in lowering the margin came because we have a huge increase and a good quarter for ho1a, as well as we have also for Mega model, our MBNL service. That's why we have some pressure. But having said that, it looks very well the 18% increase in revenues that we have coming from a little bit of everything, cybersecurity, network and development of solutions to all our Metrocarrier and Megacable substracts.

[Operator Instructions] The next one is from Arturo Langa from Itau.

On the back of Carlos' question, can you provide more color on CapEx intensity over the next 4 years? How does that evolution work? I'll let Luis. Luis? That's a good question.

Okay. Well, basically, and we mentioned some on Carlos Legarreta's question. Basically, as we mentioned, we expect this project to be completed for the highest portion of the CapEx to be executed in the years of 2022, 2023 and 2024. But also as Raymundo mentioned, the operating CapEx for organic CapEx, we expect that to be on the low to mid-20 for the following year. And we take that as -- we take that as a good time for the CapEx after we finish the project.

The audio just went -- went down too much.

Okay, it went down, our audio.

The audio was down. Maybe you could repeat the answer, Luis.

Okay. Can you hear me better now?

Yes.

Okay. So we mentioned also to Carlos' question that the majority of the CapEx will be executed in the year 2022, '23 and '24. And the CapEx organic or the operating CapEx that we have in existing territories was registered on the low 20s. So that we see as a sign that in the future we will keep low to mid-20s for us on organic CapEx. And so that gives us a sight -- line of sight for the following years after 2024.

What Luis is saying is that if we were not doing the expansion plan that we put in place that we call Megacable 2024, our CapEx levels in the existing areas, original areas of Megacable would be around in a ratio of the low 20s of our revenues. And maybe in the future would maybe go down below the 20% of the revenues. But the CapEx we're doing in the expansion plan is taking us to levels of 35%, around 35%, 36% of the revenues. Considering that those areas, those areas will start giving us extra revenues or increasing revenues in a more constant ratio starting the second semester of 2022. So we think that we are on the right track, and we will be in very reasonable ratios of CapEx to revenues by mid '24, at the beginning of mid '24, where we are in a much better position of new homes passed, new territories, increase in revenues, and that will be a very good moment for the company.

We have a follow-up from Arturo, and you said that in terms of capital sales at consolidated level, I believe we have done that.

Just to understand if the CapEx is above the 40% you're running the company at currently?

Well, we continue with our plans on CapEx, and it could reach high 30s. That's our expectation. Maybe we will reach the 40%. But basically, for now we will call it on high 30s.

And Arturo, let me complement Enrique and Luis statement on a more -- much more detail of what we're doing. So you can see what the future will look. We have the GPON evolution project as well as increasing fiber in the rest of the systems of Megacable. The GPON network that we have will allow us to migrate also to the next generation of GPON when we need it with very low CapEx to be invested related to what we are doing right now. What I mean is, the network will last for many years to come. The CPEs that we're installing right now that is part of the CapEx that you see both in HFC or GPON, out CapEx that will be used for the future recurrence of the technology, that's a great advantage that we have. Our hybrid set-top boxes can be used in HFC or GPON. So whenever we continue to migrate to GPON, the rest of the areas of Megacable, we will not have to replace the CPEs that we have in that part. So once we finish building the GPON, the MC 2024, the CapEx should come from acquisition of subscribers. And of course, companies like us will always have maintenance CapEx of changing and replacing set-top box and increasing part of the network. But it sure will look like we will be in the 20s, like Enrique and Luis mentioned on that part. And that will come once we finish all this part in the next 4 years, 5 years that we will have -- that we foresee. Right now our focus on the high 30, like Luis said, that's where we are because we have special projects like MC 2024 that will short burn cash and CapEx from us and will bring subscribers at the end of this year and mostly 2023 and 2024.

Okay. We have another question from [indiscernible]. How many stand-alone video subscribers do you have?

Okay. So stand-alone video subscribers, we have in the range of 250,000.

And that is the last question from the webcast. So if no further questions, I'll pass the call over to Mr. Yamuni for final remarks.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Enrique?

Yes, I think I got disconnected. [Technical Difficulty] Okay. Thank you very much. I think I'm on -- I'm the line again. As a final reminder, well, thank you very much for you attending this conference. And as always, we're open to future questions or extra comments that you have, we will be glad to attend you. And thank you very much. And Megacable will, for sure, continue to deliver good results, and we are prepared for the future, and we will be one of the best -- keep being one of the best companies, telecom companies in Mexico and Latin America. Thank you very much for your attention. And we expect to hear from you in the future. Raymundo?

Yes, adding to your comment, Enrique, and as a closeup from my part, we have a 5% increase in unique subscribers and a 10% -- pretty much 10% increase in revenue with a very healthy growth regarding the number of unique subscribers and revenues that we have. We are aimed to the 3 main projects and the [indiscernible] that we mentioned there. We are evolving our existing level. We are doing the evolve of the video part to the XView with 2.6 million [indiscernible] already migrate to the -- subscribers want to see video, want to watch video in the future, want to watch entertainment, I would like to say, okay? And also we continue to move MC2024. Thank you for your trust. Those are the 3 main things that are kept in our mind, growing the revenues, growing the EBITDA, keeping the margins at the levels that we have, as well as doing those people that sure will reach doubling the size of this company in the years to come. Thank you very, very much from my side.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.