First Quarter 2022 Results
The enclosed information constitutes regulated information as defined in the Royal Decree of 14 November 2007 regarding the duties of issuers of financial instruments which have been admitted for trading on a regulated market. Inside information.
- Continued growth of our FMC customer base, reaching 772,400 subscribers at the end of Q1 2022, while reduced market flux impacted our net adds performance in the quarter.
- Reconfirming our FY 2022 outlook on all metrics, expecting an improved trend in both our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA(a) performance in the second half of the year.
- Continued execution against our shareholder remuneration policy and leverage framework following yesterday's AGM/EGM approval of a gross final dividend of €1.375 per share and the cancellation of 1.1 million treasury shares.
Mechelen, April 28, 2022– Telenet Group Holding NV (“Telenet” or the “Company”) (Euronext Brussels: TNET) announces its unaudited consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (“EU IFRS”) for the three months ended March 31, 2022.
HIGHLIGHTS
- At the end of Q1, we entered into a binding agreement with DigitalBridge Group, Inc. regarding the full sale of our mobile telecommunications tower business, which owns all of our passive infrastructure assets. We expect this transaction to close in Q2 2022. As a result of this landmark transaction for Telenet, we intend to move to EBITDAal reporting from Q2 this year and will provide rebased headline financials in order to facilitate a like-for-like comparison base, including an update of our FY 2022 outlook to reflect the transaction impact on our key financial metrics.
- Continued progress with Fluvius on the "data network of the future" for Flanders. Both companies target to enter into legal agreements by the time we report our H1 2022 results, which represents a slightly delayed timing versus spring initially.
- Sustained growth of our FMC customer base driven by our "ONE(Up)" bundles (+22,700), while lower market flux impacted net new subscriber growth for our broadband internet and mobile postpaid offers in the quarter of +2,900 and +8,800, respectively, with annualized churn remaining at historically low levels.
- Revenue of €644.8 million in Q1 2022, broadly flat yoy with our Q1 2021 revenue including certain one-offs. The impact of these one-offs resulted in a drag on our revenue growth of around 1%.
- Net profit of €160.4 million in Q1 2022, up 43% yoy, reflecting a significantly improved financial result partly offset by higher income tax expense and a 12% year-on-year decline in our operating profit as detailed below.
- Q1 2022 Adjusted EBITDA(1) of €328.5 million, which represented a decline of nearly 2% yoy. The decline in our Adjusted EBITDA was driven by both a tough comparison base compared to last year because of certain one-offs in Q1 2021 and the impact of higher inflation on both our staff-related expenses and network operating costs.
- Accrued capital expenditures(2) of €180.2 million in Q1 2022, +26% versus last year and approximately 28% of revenue. Excluding (i) the recognition of certain football broadcasting rights, (ii) the temporary extension of both our 2G and 3G mobile spectrum licenses and (iii) certain lease-related capital additions from our accrued capital expenditures, our Q1 2022 accrued capital expenditures were €139.8 million, equivalent to approximately 22% of revenue.
- Adjusted EBITDA less property & equipment additions (previously referred to as Operating Free Cash Flow)(3) of €188.7 million in Q1 2022, -6% yoy, mainly driven by (i) a nearly 2% contraction in our Adjusted EBITDA as explained above and (ii) modestly higher accrued capital expenditures versus Q1 last year (excluding the recognition of football broadcasting rights, mobile spectrum licenses and certain lease-related capital additions).
- Net cash from operating activities, net cash used in investing and net cash used in financing activities of €231.1 million, €124.6 million and €83.1 million, respectively, in Q1 2022. Adjusted Free Cash Flow(4) of €61.2 million, representing a 49% yoy decrease and mainly reflecting (i) a different phasing in the payment of our annual cash taxes and (ii) an €8.8 million lower contribution from our vendor financing compared to Q1 last year.
- Having completed the first three months of the year, we reconfirm our full year 2022 outlook as presented mid-February. Relative to the first quarter, we expect an improved trend in both our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA performance in the second half of the year, driven by certain price adjustments coming into effect as of mid-June 2022 as announced yesterday, as well as a continued focus on our operating expenses and tight cost control.
- In line with our policy, the board of directors proposed to yesterday's Annual Shareholders' Meeting to approve the payment of a gross final dividend of €1.375 per share (€149.0 million in total, based on the number of dividend-entitled shares outstanding at the date of this release). Having received the required shareholder approval yesterday, the dividend will be paid next week on May 4, 2022, with the Telenet shares trading ex-dividend on Euronext Brussels as of May 2, 2022. Yesterday's EGM also approved the cancellation of 1.1 million treasury shares, representing the shares which we repurchased through our Share Repurchase Program 2021.
(a) Quantitative reconciliations to net profit (including net profit growth rates) for our Adjusted EBITDA guidance cannot be provided without unreasonable efforts as we do not forecast certain non-cash charges including depreciation and amortization and impairment, restructuring and other operating items included in net profit. The items we do not forecast may vary significantly from period to period.
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