Quebecor Inc. (QBRA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Quebecor Inc. financial results for the first quarter. [Operator Instructions] I would like to introduce Hugues Simard, Chief Financial Officer of Quebecor Inc. Please go ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this Quebecor conference call. My name is Hugues Simard. I'm the Chief Financial Officer. And joining me to discuss our financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2021 are Pierre Karl Peladeau, our President and CEO; and Jean-Francois Pruneau, President and CEO of Videotron. Anyone unable to attend the conference call will be able to listen to a recording by telephone or webcast. Access details will be posted on the Quebecor website within 24hours following this call. The recording will be available until August 11. I also want to inform you that certain statements made on the call may be considered forward-looking, and we would refer you to the risk factors outlined in today's press release and reports filed by the corporation with regulatory authority. Let's now move on to our first speaker, Pierre Karl Peladeau.

[Foreign Language] Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to report another strong quarter of resilience, disciplined execution and steadily improving operational results for Quebecor despite the continuing impact of the global pandemic on the economy as we delivered growth of 3.7% in our consolidated EBITDA and 4.3% in our cash flow from operations. Our telecom operations performed well in all segments. In wireless, our 2 brands combined, once again, the highest market share of gross ads in a highly competitive environment, continuing to deliver double-digit growth in revenues and EBITDA, while managing to control the conjectural impact on ABPU. Our Fizz brand continued its upward path, both in wireless and broadband, contributing to almost doubling our net adds in Internet this quarter. Our Helix platform will also fuel our strong wireline performance, delivering again more than 100,000 new clients this quarter. Our Media segment was, of course, impacted by the postponement of the NHL season to the first quarter, which led to higher programming costs at TVA fall on a quarter-to-quarter comparison. That being said, we are encouraged by the improving performance of advertising revenues and confirmed in our #1 position in Quebec with a 39.4% audience market share and several highly popular shows such as [indiscernible] and [indiscernible], which attracted average audience of 1.7 million and 1.4 million viewers, respectively. On the regulatory front, we're pleased with the CRTC decision, allowing facility-based MVNOs as it confirms the importance of maintaining healthy competition in all regions of Canada through a strong, well funded and viable fourth wireless competitor, which invariably leads to lower prices for consumers as we, ourselves, clearly demonstrated in Quebec. Speaking of strong core players. It's imperative that a competition bureau and other regulatory authorities act sensibly and consistently with respect to the recently announced acquisition of Shaw by Roger to ensure that the important competitive role played by freedom wireless in Ontario and the West provinces continues through the sale of deep access to an experienced and proven operator, we will ensure the long-term viability and success of a fourth competitor in these key markets so that prices can continue to come down for Canadian consumers. Another CRTC ruling regarding access to Bell support structures, a topic we have brought up numerous times in the recent past, was finally published on April 16 and was uniquick vocal.

Unequivocal.

Unequivocal. Unequivocal. I'm sorry.

It's a tough word, yes?

It's a tough word. Bell as contravene numerous regulations deliberately violated the Telecommunication Act. Clearly, this anticompetitive behavior, which has been denounced by Videotron and many other industry stakeholders must stop. We have heard many empty promises in the last few weeks. It is now time to walk the talk. Finally, we are happy with the recent high speed operation government program initiative for which Videotron committed to connect more than 37,000 underserved households, the highest allotment of -- in our footprint and as a testament to Videotron expertise and ability to carry out large-scale projects. And I will now let Hugues review our consolidated financial results.

[Foreign Language] Quebecor's revenues were up 3% in the quarter to $1.09 billion. Revenues from our Telecom segment grew 4.5% to $914 million, and revenues from our Media segment remained stable at $175 million. Quebecor's EBITDA was up 4% to $453 million. Our Telecom segment recorded EBITDA growth of 3.5% to $451 million, while our Media segment recorded an EBITDA of $1 million, a $3 million decrease. We reported a net income attributable to shareholders of $121 million in the quarter, or $0.49 a share, compared with net income of $132 million, or $0.52 per share, reported in the same quarter last year. The decrease is explained by an unfavorable variance in the valuation of financial instruments, most notably, our convertible debenture, partially offset by an increase in adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted income from continuing operations, excluding unusual items and gains or losses on valuation of financial instruments, came in at $130 million, or $0.52 per share, compared with an adjusted income of $112 million, or $0.44 per share, in the same quarter last year. Our cash flow from operations in the first quarter of 2021 increased by $13 million, or 4%, to $308 million, once again, demonstrating the resilience and strength of Quebecor's business model. Our financial profitability, propelled by the strong returns from our Telecom segment, remains very solid. As of the end of the quarter, our net to -- our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 2.67x, down from 2.8x reported at the end of the last quarter -- of the first quarter, rather, of last year and comparing very favorably to our telecom peers. Thanks to the success of our recent financing where Videotron issued $650 million of senior unsecured notes in the Canadian high-yield market, yielding 3.125%, or 3 and one-eighth percent, our available liquidities of $2.6 billion positions us favorably for the upcoming spectrum auctions and the maturities of our notes. In the quarter, we purchased and canceled 2.6 million Class B shares for a total investment of more than $84 million. Since we initiated our NCIB 10 years ago, approximately 43.3 million Class B shares have been purchased and canceled. As we have demonstrated in the past, our financial position remains healthy and solid, enabling us to pursue very successfully our business strategy. I will now let JF review our Telecom segment's operations.

Thank you, Hugues, and good afternoon, everyone. I hope that everyone is well and staying safe during these challenging times as we enter into the third wave of the pandemic. Our focus obviously remains on keeping our employees safe as we continue to work from home while providing the best and safest condition for our customers and our colleagues on site. On April 1, we announced the acquisition of Cablovision Warwick. We are pleased to join forces with a well-established cable company in the Suuns, Quebec region. Cablovision Warwick is recognized for its excellent customer service and its value proximity with local families and businesses. We plan to upgrade its existing infrastructure in order to offer our state-of-the-art residential and business services. Before I get into our results for the quarter, I also wish to highlight that Videotron was awarded the most admired telecommunication company in Quebec for the 16th consecutive year according to [ Lger's 2021 Reputation study ]. This recognition reiterates the privileged place that our organization has in the life of Quebecers, and we are more than ever dedicated to pursuing our vision of being the partner of their connected life. For the first quarter of 2021, we posted a solid performance in wireline despite the continued sluggish economic conditions. We recorded 11,000 broadband subscriber growth, 75% higher than last year in this seasonally slowest quarter of the year and managed to reduce video subs decline, thanks to our new Helix platform. For a third consecutive quarter, 100,000 customers signed up to our Helix service, bringing us to 827,000 video and broadband subscribers as of April 30. Having not yet stopped selling our legacy video and Internet services, we're pleased to witness that close to 8 new video customers out of 10 choose to subscribe to Helix, whereas it is close to 9 new Internet customers out of 10 who choose Helix, greatly beneficial to our churn rates. The Helix platform continues to evolve. We officially launched our auto install option in March, thereby giving our customers more autonomy and safety over the installation process. I am proud to report that we get very good satisfaction ratings, thus far, with a satisfaction rate of 87% from clients who selected auto install. During the quarter, we also added new home automation partners to our Helix Fi app, including major brands such as Lutron, LifeVest and others, adding further functions around life and indoor temperature control. The vast majority of our production have resumed, allowing us to continue creating rich content for global eco subscribers. In the first quarter, we launched more exclusive content, including [indiscernible]. We have also begun filming [indiscernible] in April and finished filming La Faille as planned. Of interest to our loyal subscribers, many original and exclusive content are to be launched in the third and the fourth quarter of 2021. On the wireless front, we posted 22,000 net adds during the quarter, our growth being impacted by a complete lockdown and closed stores for the first half of the quarter, resulting in slower market activity throughout the quarter. Nonetheless, we once again led the market with a 30.5% market share of gross adds, and churn was flat year-over-year. Our total market share in Quebec now stands just shy of 21% and still growing. Wireless ABPU declined 3.2% in the quarter, one half as explained by COVID travel-related restrictions and the other half explained by the dilutive impact of Fizz. However, both videos home mobile and Fizz exhibited year-over-year ABPU growth, which will translate in total ABPU growth once the proportion of Fizz customers in our total base stabilizes. Despite aggressive handset cost promotion from our rivals, we also managed to keep cost of acquisition and cost of renewals well under control, therefore, balancing customer growth and operating income growth. During the quarter, Fizz officially introduced its assets offerings, testing an innovative external financing business model and opening up a new addressable market for Fizz. While the pandemic brought its share of challenges, we also tested new operating models. For instance, [ study ] working is appreciated by our employees and will remain in place beyond the sanitary crisis. We expect that 60%, 6-0, of our employees will integrate some kind of teleworking post pandemic, which will result in a reduction of 75% of our office space rent expense. As for our financials. Overall, we posted solid revenue growth of 4.5% to $914 million driven primarily by wireless and Internet services as well as equipment sales. We recorded EBITDA growth of 3.5% to $451 million. Cash flow from operations grew $10 million to $313 million. CapEx spending increased 4%, or $5 million, to $138 million, in line with guidance. This increase is primarily explained by our LTE advanced 5G rollout. Wireless CapEx increased by $19 million year-over-year to $43 million. Let me now turn the floor back to Pierre Karl for a conclusion.

[Foreign Language] As a matter of fact, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, JF, for your important and loyal contribution to Quebecor's success over the years, both as CFO and, more recently, as President of Videotron. We've been working together very closely in -- at the time and sometimes of tough time, and we succeeded all together with the entire team to be where we are today. We will miss you, and I sincerely wish you the very best for -- in your future endeavors. Looking ahead, the team of Quebecor, Videotron, TVA and all our divisions are focused on continuing to build the momentum that deliver consistent and disciplined execution, growing cash flows, and thus, continuing to strengthen our solid balance sheet. I thank you for your attention, and we will now open the lines for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Mr. Jeff Fan.

And let me just express my thank you to JF as well for all the years of partnership. That's been a long journey, and all the best in the next chapter. My question -- I guess, there are 2 questions. One is just around Fizz and the Videotron brand and how they contribute to your wireless net adds. I'm just wondering if Fizz continues to take a larger share -- or making a larger share of contribution to net adds or gross adds over time to keep you in that 30% gross add. And how -- and whether there is going to be a lapping or stabilizing of that space, whether Fizz just kind of continues to take a bigger, bigger share of your total base. And the second question is really the bigger picture around national wireless expansion. I think everyone on the call were is well aware that there may be some divestitures coming out of the Rogers Shaw transaction. It feels like deja vu. You guys have looked at this many, many years ago. I'm just wondering if you can share some insights on comparing and contrasting how this possible exercise may look different compared to the last time you looked at this back in 2014.

All right. I'll start with the first part of the question, and I guess Pierre Karl will take the follow -- the second one. Well, thank you for your words, Jeff. In terms of the proportion of the share of bids in our total base and whatnot, well, the first thing that I would say is when you look at the share of gross add year-over-year, and it's been very constant or very consistent for both Fizz and Videotron mobile. So as you mentioned, in total, we're 30-plus, we're 30-plus this quarter. We've been 30-plus for 3 out of 4 quarters last year. And -- but when you look at the share growth add for Fizz, specifically, or for Videotron mobile brand, specifically, it's very constant over time. So it's not taking a bigger share. The thing is with respect to the ABPU growth is, obviously, over 2/3 of our subscribers or new subscribers are either Fizz or BYOD right now. And our total base is not yet stabilizing. So there's an increasing proportion year -- day after day or quarter after quarter that is BYOD and Fizz, which, obviously, come in lower ABPU. So that's really the reason why you see that dilutive effect with respect to Fizz and the BYOD programs. And I would add to that, with teleworking, obviously, people are more relying on their WiFi than they were relying in the past. In the past, they were relying more on their wireless packages. They don't need as much big package as they needed in the past. And I think it's really circumstantial related to the pandemic. And once the pandemic will be over and people will start to go outside and travel and visit people, I think, that we're going to get back to higher packages or bigger packages. And obviously, that will also help on the ABPU. And I would finish by saying the good thing is that on a year-over-year basis, inbound ABPU for both Videotron mobile and Fizz is going up. So once our base stabilizes with respect to Fizz in the total base, I think, for sure, you're going to see ABPU grow.

Thanks, JF. Jeff. From JF to Jeff. So Jeff, I guess that you are aware and know about that when we entered the wireless business 10 years ago, as you know, we entered as an MVNO. And we entered because we thought that it will make sense in the future to be a facility-based operator. This is why we made a lot of representations in Ottawa to make sure that at the end of the day, we'll have the capacity to buy spectrum and -- which is the beginning of being a facility-based operator. I think that we were successful to convince the different politicians that they were looking to have competition in Canada. A fourth operator is required. And to get this requirement, you then have the desire or the requirement of having set aside spectrum auction. And that's a place. And from there, we build. But you will remember that -- well, maybe you will not. But we were looking to have a national brand, and it became throughout the auction that it became very competitive. At the beginning, we saw, in fact, Shaw, bidding on a portion of spectrum on the western side of the country. And we -- because of this situation, we decided that we're not going to go against Shaw. They are the natural territory. And so, we concentrated on Ontario and Quebec. At that time, you will remember that was disglobalize, we found out being funded by a foreign company, [indiscernible], and they paid, remember, over $500 million for the spectrum they acquired. So we're also there disciplined we are and disciplined we were not going to participate in prices that we were considering not making sense financially. So we wanted the 40,000 -- 40 megahertz available on the spectrum set aside in Quebec and start operating. As of today, I think, that we've been quite successful. We have 1.4 million customers. After 10 years, that have been able to fuel our growth. You just -- well -- and to the answer of Jean-Francois, there's a certain limit for us to continue to consider that we will continue to grow the kind of growth that we've been experiencing in the past. So here we are in front of this opportunity. There are 3 regulatory bodies that will have to review the transaction regarding Shaw and Rogers on the wireless side. I think the evidence has been made that if you want to have competition and you have lower prices, which also, on top of that, is a matter of what politicians will look at, then a fourth operator is doing the job. It was done in Quebec, and Competition Bureau came in with a report. And it's not our number. It's Competition Bureau numbers that have shown pricing was better for consumers in Quebec than elsewhere. It's true that for the last few years, this trend took place also in the Freedom Mobile footprint. But I guess that if Rogers was to buy Freedom Mobile, this trend will completely disappear. And you will not have a fourth operator in Quebec if Rogers were to buy the Videotron in 2000. So we have the CRTC. We have ISED, and we have Competition Bureau that will review all this transaction. And we certainly have Rogers with a high desire to close this transaction as quick as possible because time is money, and then therefore, we will be ready to consider or to negotiate what could be a fair price for this asset. We will probably not be alone. I don't think it will be the case. But we certainly have all the entire expertise to run a wireless operator and the capacity of doing so successfully. We have the balance sheet. As you know, we've been 2.7x debt to EBITDA at the beginning. We have obligations not so long ago of buying back the stake, which is now behind us. And we have the best balance sheet of the industry. So I would say that all of those aspects are positioning us quite favorably for our next step.

[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Jerome Dubreuil.

JF, congratulations for accomplishment, and good luck in your future endeavors as well. First, on maybe on JF's departure, JF, I'm sure you were already very much involved in decisions at Videotron, but maybe can you describe your recent involvement and how you foresee this could change going forward? And then second, on CapEx, a 2-part question. You said in past quarters that we're holding off a bit on CapEx due to regulatory uncertainty. There's still regulatory uncertainty for sure, but do you feel you have the visibility needed now with the MVNO decision maybe to step up CapEx? And is your participation in the Quebec government programs [ connect rural areas ] already included in the CapEx guidance you provided on the last call?

Good. Thank you, Jerome. Well, I guess that you're right to say that have been involved in the -- let's call it supervision, but obviously, also, as you can imagine, decision-making at the Videotron. I think that with -- for the last decades, I would say, that we've been building teams around our operation in Videotron. It's a natural thing that we see people retiring and being replaced. And I think what we can use as an example is Daniel [ Fu ], which was our engineer of Vice President, went on retirement. He was replaced by his number [indiscernible], which is now our VP. And life goes on. But there's a permanent thing, which is the discipline that we've been able to put in the company for the last 20 years. You were probably not there, Jerome. But what we said in 2000 was that we will reduce our debt, and we will increase our EBITDA. That's a quite simple formula. But basically, that's what we did. And 20 years later, after also increasing in -- adding a new -- well, a few other segments because never forget that in 2000 at the beginning of the Internet access was not the size that we have today, and we didn't -- we were not -- and in fact, in the wireline telephony at all, and we were far from being in the wireless. We built all this. We built all this together with the team that we built throughout the years with the expertise. And this expertise is there also to continue to give us opportunity to grow in the future. So when I'm talking about discipline, and this is probably also one of the reasons of our success and one of the reasons that we've been successful in the formula, I mentioned earlier, regarding increasing EBITDA and reducing debt, is that we were disciplined in capital expenditures, and we will continue to do so. I think it's important to make sure that we will spend where it's worth as much as possible to spend. And I guess that you've been raising very interesting example, which is [indiscernible], I guess, that you're familiar with the Quebec situation. So we were awarded the largest stake in the new [indiscernible]. And as you know, Internet access is considered as an essential service. We've been successful also in our complaints in front of the CRTC against Bell in our desire and requirement to put our network on the polls. This will deliver a very interesting result at a very lower price. So we look forward to continuing the same philosophy that have been built and have been established for the last 20 years.

The question is from David.

Our next question is from David [indiscernible]

She can't pronounce your last name, apparently.

We know who you are.

We know who you are, yes.

It's [indiscernible]. Anyways. Just on the mobile net adds, 22,000 in the quarter, I noticed you, obviously, sound that the -- your share of the growth adds were 30% plus. But I thought last quarter, you might have been a little disappointed with your mobile net adds. And I was just wondering, this quarter, is it the same. Are you happy with that level of net adds of 22,000? And I was wondering if you could disclose some other wireless metrics that usually disclose such as churn and the wireless EBITDA growth.

Yes. Well, let me give you a few factors that I believe is playing our 22,000 or lower growth than last year and obviously, sequentially. Sequentially, it's easy to understand because our business is seasonal, and you know what, Q4 is a very active market. You have the Boxing Day. You have the Black Friday promotion. So it's a very active quarter. So sequentially, I guess, it's just normal that we're seeing lower growth. But if you look at the -- year-over-year, obviously, this year, we had -- half of the quarter where we were in lockdown and the stores were closed. Last year, obviously, the pandemic started mid-March, so it was only 2 weeks essentially of lockdown and closed stores. So it obviously had an impact. And as you know, in wireless, since we are the challenger, when the market is slow, we tend to show slower growth than the previous year because the market is too slow. The good thing, I believe, is that despite this slow market, we continue to grab more than 30% share of gross adds. So -- and churn is stable. So it's not like churn is growing or increasing, and then we're losing our customer. Not at all. Churn is stable this quarter compared to the last quarter -- the same quarter last year. One other thing I would add is with the reopening of the stores in mid-February, what we've seen is -- and I think I told that. I said the same in the third quarter of last year, following the reopening of the stores in late June. Once again, we sort of saw or witnessed some kind of panic from our competitors with crazy promotions on handset cost, and we didn't play that game. In fact, I think, that one thing that characterizes us is really that we're able to achieve a balance between operating income that is growing and [ sturts ] that are growing. We don't want to kill our operating income just because we're chasing customers and doing the same as the big 3 are doing essentially. So I think that is something that is very important to understand, this balance that, that is not an easy task, but I think we're able to achieve this balance. And I would finish by saying that the following thing. In 2014, there was a break -- some kind of a breakout in our business when we launched our LTE network. We got the Apple phone. We innovated with -- by creating the biggest data buckets in Canada, and that essentially allowed us to improve our share of gross adds from the mid-teens to low 20s. And then in 2018, we went with another innovation -- or another thing that was different to our customers, which was Fizz, a new operating model, a new business model, a new brand. And we've been able to grow from the low 20s to the low 30s our share of gross adds. And I think now we're ready, for instance, a next phase of growth. And one thing that we're essentially working on is the equipment installment plan. We're working on this initiative, and I think it's going to be a new thing that will again broaden our addressable market, and we'll probably, and I believe, will improve our share gross adds further. And on top of that Fizz, as you probably know, is now offering handsets, which Fizz wasn't in the past, again, broadening our addressable market. I think future is great in terms of subscriber growth. And I'm not disappointed on -- obviously, on an absolute basis. Somewhat, you can be disappointed with the gross adds, but I think that on a relative basis and based on the market that we had in Quebec, it's a very, very strong performance.

Okay. And then can you comment on wireless EBITDA growth?

High teens.

High teens. Okay. And then just on TVA Sports because TVA is not having a conference call now, maybe a question for Pierre Karl. So I was just wondering, what's the latest with achieving a higher sub C from Bell for TVA Sports? Because I think they're really underpinning compared with everybody else.

Well, it's a never-ending story, David, with Bell as a distributor and as a broadcaster and as a competitor of TVA Sports. It's true for the sports segment, but it's true also for the other channels, specialty channels, and, what we call, the fair market value. We've been able to negotiate prices with all the other distributors. And for a reason, which we consider is easily understandable, the same kind of agreements are not able to be reached with Bell as a distributor. So this is why we've been in front of the CRTC and we've been in front also of the court to be able to establish what we consider being fair market value. It's a long process with them through this process, 15 years ago when Bell decided that it will not follow the rules and the fair business practices in terms of privacy. And you will remember, David, that in 2015, the appeal courts of Quebec condemned Bell to pay $140 million because of that to Videotron and TVA. So it's unfortunate to say that, that will end as I began is -- it's a never-ending story with Bell.

Okay. So we're not waiting on any CRTC decision or anything. It's just kind of still -- kind of status quo.

Right now, it's the status quo, and it's in front of the Federal Court.

Federal Court. Okay. All right. And then -- and lastly, a question for Hugues. Can you just update us what the CapEx plan is for 2021?

No change in our CapEx guidance for the year.

Can you remind us what it is?

$650 million.

$600 million to $650 million.

$600 million to $650 million, right?

For Videotron.

Yes, for Videotron, exactly. That's the only guidance we gave out.

Our next question comes from Vince Valentini.

Let me just stay on the CapEx for a second. Hugues, I'm not sure we answered Jerome's question from earlier on how much of this -- these new world of households, the 37,000, that you've won in partnership with the government, how much that will cost you? And is this none of that spend start to happen this year? Or is it not big enough to change your CapEx budget even if it is this year?

Yes. I can take that one, Vince. So obviously, it's a pay as you go, as you can imagine, but we'll -- we've been assisted, and we are assisted from a subsidies standpoint. We are assisted by the government. And our part of the deal I wouldn't say is minimal, but it's not that material on a 2-year basis because, obviously, our investment will be spread over 2 years. So there won't -- we won't see any change in our guidance because of this program. Mostly for 2021, it won't affect our budget.

Okay. By the way, best of luck to you, JF. You've been fantastic to work with over the years. I shouldn't be remiss in saying that as well. Second question, Internet revenue up 6.4% this quarter. That's more than double what you were doing through most of 2020, and it's nice to see. Can you talk to that a little bit? Is it just some delayed rate increases that finally went through? Or is there a bit more usage by your customers moving to higher tiers or perhaps a bit more promotional discipline in the market so you don't have to have as many subs on heavy discounts? If you can just talk to what the key drivers are there, that would be great.

Sure. Two things I would say. The 2 major things are, obviously, are price increases. So as you know, our price increases were effective March 1. So we got 1 month of those price increases kicking in, and they were to the level of 4% to 6% approximately, depending on the kind of package. So it's, obviously, had an impact. The second thing is, you're right in mentioning that people are looking for higher-tier services. And teleworking is, obviously, a source for that. So we're seeing people subscribing to higher-tiers packages, yes.

Excellent. And last question, probably for Pierre Karl. In your answer to Jeff's question earlier regarding Freedom Mobile, you mentioned having to negotiate a fair price for the asset, assuming that it does come for sale. I'm wondering about the terms of the deal as much as the price, though. Do you think that you could just acquire what they have and then be a standalone wireless player with that network and that spectrum position? Or is it important to you to also try to gain some sort of network access or network sharing in tandem with any deal that you'd be willing to do?

Well, we're always going to be open and flexible regarding different types of transactions and eventually, possibly, any kind of a partnership. Also, maybe when we can add on all this, and again, I think, it's positioning ourselves quite favorably. It's -- the MVNO decisions have been released by the CRTC. I guess that it was inspired by Cogeco position, but also -- from also our position, we've been always saying that to be fair in an industry that requires a significant capital expenditure, you need to sponsor facility-based operators. And as you know, the CRTC decisions avoiding any kind of MVNO of a commitment to build your own network in a certain period of time, in fact, is 7 years. So here we are in front of a market and -- a regulatory market with proper conditions that's giving us the -- also the availability of growing our business at, certainly, probably at the speed or the rate that we will consider being the best way to do so. And in front of us, you also have this fourth operator that may be or must be considered for sale regarding competition purpose and meeting expectation from regulatory bodies. So this also being mentioned is -- add on favorable conditions at the proper level and the discipline kind of execution that we're looking for.

Operator, is there another question or...

There are no more questions at this time.

Excellent. So I...

Thank you. Thank you very much all, and talk to you next quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Quebecor Inc.'s financial results for the first quarter 2021 conference call. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day.