United Internet AG ($UTDI)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the United Internet Quarterly Statement Q1 2026 Webcast and Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Dominic Grossman. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, and good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to our Q1 2026 Analyst and Investor Call. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Dominik Korsmann. I'm responsible for Investor Relations at United Internet. And here with me today, I have our CFO, Carsten Theurer. Briefly about today's call. Carsten will first take you through our presentation with the business development in the first quarter and will also give an outlook for the remainder of the year. Afterwards, we will be happy to answer your questions. So far to our agenda, I would now like to hand over to Carsten. Carsten, please go ahead. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Dominik, and also a warm welcome from my side to our webcast on our 3 months figures 2026. Before diving into our figures, I would like to present the new reporting structure that we have adopted since the beginning of the new fiscal year 2026. Going forward, United Internet will only have the following 3 segments based on the names of the respective subgroups, 1&1, IONOS and Mail & Media. This streamlined reporting structure further reflects the changes due to the sale of 1&1 Versatel to 1&1 as the former segments, Consumer Access and Business Access will be only reported on a consolidated basis, the 1&1 AG. In addition, the former segments, Business Applications and Consumer Applications are renamed to IONOS and Mail & Media, respectively, which allows for streamlined reporting with reduced complexity. Moving on to the financial performance on the quarter. Let us take a glance at our major KPIs for the group. Starting with the customer figures, we are happy to show that our customer contracts increased by 380,000 to over EUR 30 million to EUR 30.1 million in the first months of 2026. The strong momentum is especially driven by Mail & Media and IONOS, which with more details to come once we go through our respective segment performance. Our revenue subsequently improved by 2.5% to more than EUR 1.55 billion. Group EBITDA grew by 2.4% to EUR 331.9 million. Our EBIT increased by more than 15%, which is driven by a significant decrease in PPA depreciation. Nevertheless, our amortization of intangible assets and depreciation of property, plant and equipment continued to increase as we continue to make investments in the rollout of the fiber optic network and the rollout of the 1&1 mobile network. As a result of the improved EBIT and lower taxes, we managed to increase EPS to EUR 0.36 per share, an increase of 44%. Over the following slides, we will do a deep dive into our segment development, starting with 1&1. Overall, the number of customer contracts remained stable at 16.32 million customer contracts in the first quarter of 2026. Both the number of mobile contracts and broadband connections remained unchanged at 12.48 million and 3.84 million, respectively. On the broadband side, that is a positive development against the backdrop of the slight decrease over the last quarters. We are happy to see that our latest campaign that promotes the easy switch to 1&1 has been paying off, and we were able to put a stop to the churn. While the competition in the mobile market remained intense in the first quarter, and we expect this environment to continue in the second quarter of this year, the performance is in line with our expectation. That means in terms of revenue, 1&1 generated around EUR 1.1 billion, which is an increase of 1.1% compared to the first 3 months of the prior year. Service revenues have slightly decreased year-over-year and in line with the business plan to almost EUR 900 million. Hardware sales grew almost 11% to EUR 246.3 million. If we turn our attention to EBITDA on the next slide, we can observe that the segment EBITDA is stable at EUR 192.4 million. EBITDA in Q1 was impacted by an increase in wholesale costs. Due to the capacity-based model underlying the national roaming agreement, the slower-than-planned growth of Vodafone's own network usage resulted in higher costs for 1&1. In addition, as a consequence of the switch of the national roaming provider from Telefonica to Vodafone in 2025, the cost of certain network components are directly recognized in EBITDA, whereas previously under the Telefonica national roaming agreement, they were activated and depreciated. While both effects were fully reflected in Q1 2026, they were only partially effective in Q1 2025. In contrast, savings on external mobile network wholesale services had an offsetting effect in Q1 2026 as an of wholesale services is being produced within the company's own mobile network. The EBITDA margin is thus largely unchanged and in line with our expectations. Next up, let's proceed with the performance of IONOS. IONOS increased their contract portfolio by 300,000 contracts to 10.35 million. This surge is driven both by winning customers domestically as well as abroad with our operations abroad performing even stronger. Revenues in this segment increased by 5.7% to almost EUR 350 million as a result of aforementioned strong customer growth and up and cross-selling. Excluding foreign exchange impacts, the revenues growth is even higher with 7.6%. We have invested in higher marketing expenses compared to previous year. Despite that, EBITDA increased by 5.5% to EUR 112.2 million, and the operating EBITDA margin remained strong above 32%. To conclude the segment deep dive, this brings us to the performance of the Mail & Media segment. The number of pay accounts rose by 80,000 to 3.43 million in the first quarter of 2026. By contrast, due to seasonal effects as well as the successful ongoing conversion to pay accounts, net finance free accounts were down by 220,000 or 0.6% compared to year-end 2025. The Mail & Media achieved a revenue growth of 7.6% to EUR 79.3 million, driven primarily by growth in pay contracts as well as a positive development on the advertising side of the business. There was also further growth in EBITDA with operating EBITDA increasing by 70.3% to almost EUR 30 million and corresponding improvement in our operating EBITDA margin by more than 3 percentage points year-over-year to 37.6%. Besides the underlying operative business performance contributing to the growth in EBITDA, the increase results from the acquisition of the server infrastructure used in IONOS Group's data centers, which was previously leased from IONOS. Following the acquisition effective January 1, 2026, the prior incurred lease costs fully expensed through EBITDA as OpEx have been shifted. The acquired infrastructure is now recognized as capital expenditure on the balance sheet and depreciated on a scheduled basis, impacting EBIT. So much for the segments. Here, we have summarized additional KPIs for the group. At around EUR 180 million, our CapEx was down year-over-year from EUR 122 million. This confirms that we are on track to finish the year below the elevated levels in the past 2 years. Our free cash flow improved significantly year-over-year, turning positive to the first 3 months of the year with more details on the next slide. The net bank liabilities increased by 4.3% to around EUR 3.3 billion as our net bank liabilities reached their peak ahead of planned repayment, while our equity ratio rose slightly by 0.4 points to 44%. And this slide shows you the bridge of our EBITDA to free cash flow. One of the main contributors to our outflows this period is CapEx totaling EUR 115.2 million. This reflects ongoing investments in our infrastructure across fiber optics mobile networks and data centers, which highly contribute to the digital serenity of Germany and Europe. After accounting for taxes and changes in working capital, our free cash flow before leasing stands at EUR 47.5 million, a significant improvement year-over-year. And therefore, our free cash flow after leasing amounts to EUR 3.7 million. And finally, a brief word on the outlook. So far, we are right on track. And looking ahead, we fully confirm our guidance for fiscal year 2026. As broadly discussed, we are planning with a back-end loaded CapEx development like in the previous year. So it's a bit too early to specify the range we've indicated. So much from our side, and we are now available for any questions you may have.

Carsten, many thanks for your explanation. Now I'd like to start with our Q&A session. The first question, please.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from the line of Polo Tang from UBS.

So apologies, I missed the 1&1 call because it clashed with Vodafone. But really, it's just a question in terms of the evolution and the development in terms of the mobile network build. So you have an 18-year NRA with Vodafone with costs being relatively fixed. It seems less likely that you will get low-band spectrum. So my question is, does it really make sense to continue and progress with a mobile network build? And can you remind us where you are in terms of the number of active cell sites and where you expect to be at the end of the year?

Polo, thanks for your questions. Concerning the spectrum discussion, discussion is still ongoing. There is still the draft from the BNetzA on the table since February, we are still waiting how this will end. But we will continue building out our network as the next spectrum auction will be in 2030 then. And therefore, we try to reach then the low-band spectrum. For the time being, we have a bridge -- we have a solution to bridge the situation with our national roaming agreement. About the speed of our network rollout, it's still the same. It's up to 200 to 300 each quarter, and we are almost in line with that in the first quarter. So we will end at the end of the year in 4x of that, so we can think about that we will end up at about 3,000 at the end of the year.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question today comes from the line of Nizla Naizer from Deutsche Bank.

I have 2 questions from my end as well. And one is something that we tend to ask you every quarter, Carsten. But when you look at the portfolio of the company now and your 64% stake in IONOS, how do you view that stake? Are you happy to remain long-term shareholders could there be a scenario where you feel like you'd want to lower the stake to sort of fund projects elsewhere? Could you give us some color on how you think about your IONOS investment? And second, on United's own sort of leverage and capital allocation, anything there that you can comment on whether -- how you're happy with the leverage target levels at the moment? What's the target leverage you'd want to be within? And is there anything else you could consider if you think there's some balance sheet flexibility? Or is 1&1 the priority now in terms of getting that network rollout done? Some color there would be great.

Thank you, Nizla, for asking the questions. So let me start with IONOS. As mentioned before, we are still happy with our stake in IONOS, and it's very, very well growing business. And therefore, we are happy to have those investments. Considering the ongoing AI trend and momentum in the sector for digitalization, we continue to see additional potential. In our view, it is therefore too early to leave the part. It means we will be still the anchor investor for the IONOS for time being. On the leverage side or the capital allocation side on the UI level, we -- as mentioned on the year-end meeting, we still aim to reduce our leverage to a target of 2.0 multiple in meaning of net debt divided by EBITDA. And at the same time, we are basically open to do more share buybacks again as in the past, but nothing is decided right now.

[Operator Instructions] And the next question comes from the line of Karsten Oblinger from DZ Bank.

It's Karsten from DZ Bank. I would like to come back to the low-band topic. So did I get you right that the low band is off the table now and then that you have to rely on the Vodafone solution? Or is there a chance that you will get low band later on this year?

Thank you for the question. It's not off the table. We are still waiting for the final decision. As mentioned in the 1&1 call before, there is a solution with 6 million each year over the 5 years for all competitors but there is no final decision. We are still fighting for a final decision, which will go in our direction. But it's too early for us to give you the right outlook if we will be successful or not. We're still believing in doing that. But what I mentioned before was even if we not will get access to the low band in this process, then the next option will be 2030, and then we will get low-band access for sure. And in the meanwhile, if we don't be successful, then we will bridge that with the solution with national roaming with our Vodafone agreement.

We will now take the next question. And the question comes from the line of Gustav Froberg from Berenberg.

Just a follow-up question again on the low-band topic. And maybe this is a pointed way of asking it. But from your perspective, is there any reason why you should not receive low-band spectrum this time around before 2030? Or is this only a matter of time? I'd be very curious to hear how you're thinking about the topic.

Thank you, Gustav, for your question and also for asking us the low-band spectrum. In our opinion, and that is what we are fighting for, there is no reason why we should don't get any access to low band because we apply for building up a network and to be a full network provider, there is necessary to have access to low band, and that is still our meaning and that is still the way we are fighting for. And all other words I mentioned are only the options if that will be not successful but we will still fighting for it. But it's been, it's kind of a laws route. So it's not that easy to see what the final outcome will be for us.

[Operator Instructions] There are currently no further questions. I will hand the call back to Dominic for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for attending our call today. Please feel free to contact us for any follow-up questions. We wish you a nice day. Stay safe, and goodbye.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.