Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Chunghwa Telecom conference call for the company's first quarter 2022 operating results. During the presentation, all lines will be on listen-only mode. When the briefing is finished, the reactions for submitting your questions will be given in the question and answer session. For information, this conference call is now being broadcasted live over the Internet. Webcast replay will be available within an hour, after the conference is finished. Please visit CHT IR website, www.cht.com.tw slash IR, under the IR calendar section. Now I'd like to turn it over to Ms. Angela Tsai, the Director of Investor Relations. Ms. Tsai, please go ahead.

Thank you. This is Angela Tsai, Director of Investor Relations for Zhonghua Telecom. Welcome to our first quarter 2022 results conference call. Joining me on the call today are Harrison Guo, our president, and Vincent Cheng, our chief financial officer. During today's call, management will begin by providing an overview of our business in the first quarter, followed by a discussion of our segment performance and financial highlights. After, we will move on to the question and answer portion of the call. Before I do, please note our safe harbor statements. Now I will turn the call over to President Guo. President Guo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Angela, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2022 earnings call. As an integrated telecom service provider, we achieved strong performance in the first quarter in terms of mobile, fixed broadband, and ICT businesses. under our new corporate structure. Let's begin on slide four for an overview of our business. In the first quarter, the mobile market in Taiwan remains steady, although the competitive landscape may change as our peers announce their major plans. We were pleased to see the market consolidation and believe the new market structure could lead to healthier competition in Taiwan. For Zhonghua, with our most extensive networks for services, we are fully confident in maintaining our leading position in the market going forward. Our revenue and subscriber market share is good in IoT themes, continue to outperform peers in the first quarter by reaching 39.1% and 36% respectively, currently in the leading status. Slide five presents our overall mobile business performance. As our mobile subscriber number is grouping IoT since increased by 0.7% year-over-year, with the successful upsell from existing subscribers, our mobile service revenue increased by 4.9% year-over-year and maintained its upward trend. In addition, 5G penetration developed steadily during the quarter, which helped to enhance the post-pay-up pool to achieve a 3.2% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, we observed an average 35% uplift in monthly fees attributable to customers who renewed contracts to adopt 5G services. Moving on to slide six for an overview of our overall fixed broadband business. In the first quarter, we are pleased to see both of fixed broadband subscriber number and the high-end subscriber number continue to grow year over year, reflecting our leading market share in Taiwan's fixed broadband market. Facebook's revenue in the first quarter continued to increase by 4.4% year-over-year due to the ongoing growth on higher-speed service adoption driven by digital opportunities. The number of sign-ups for convention speeds of 300 Mbps or higher increased by 41% year-over-year owing to work-from-home lifestyle. Sixth broadband, Apu, also continued the growth trend for the 10th executive quarters, increasing by 3.5% year-over-year, further enhancing our overall performance. Now let's move on to the performance of our customer-centric business groups. Slide 8 illustrates the revenue picture of our consumer business group, our CBG. CBG revenue in the first quarter increased by 2.2% year-over-year, reflecting our success in satisfying customers' needs during the quarter. Mobile service revenue for the consumer group grew 4.9% year-over-year, mainly due to the increase in postpaid subscriber numbers and the 5G migration. 6.9% service revenue maintained its upward trend during the quarter, attributable to additional stay-at-home digital opportunities that encourage higher-speed service adoption. sales revenue decreased year-over-year, mainly due to the health-safety supply issue under COVID-19. Entertainment demand at home and from consumers continued to drive up the group's other revenues, say, MLD and Honey Media, to achieve a 5.2% year-over-year increase during the quarter. Looking ahead, to further expand opportunities in the consumer market, we will package and deliver more customer-centric services to increase market demand, focusing on media, sports, gaming, and augmented reality or virtual reality applications. Slide 9 further demonstrates our highlights of consumer business groups, including MOD, Family Media, and the Triple Play program that promotes six broadband mobile and Wi-Fi services. In January, catering to work-from-home demand and stay-at-home opportunities, we rolled out a triple-play program to encourage consumers to enjoy seamless broadband connections by adopting our mobile fixed broadband and Wi-Fi services together. At the same time, sign-ups of home Wi-Fi devices continue to grow by 29% year-over-year to sustain the popularity of our home-centric applications. In terms of our IPTV and OTT businesses, we are glad to report that the total subscriber number of MOD and HEMI video who paid monthly fee on a yearly basis, instead of one-time sign-ups, increased to approximately $2.6 million during the quarter, remaining the largest media platform in Taiwan. MOD revenue maintained its upward trajectory as SDOD revenue grew by the 6th as consecutive quarters, driven by up-sale, and the channel service continued to increase year-over-year, which was due to 90% sign-up of highest package among the tier pricing schemes. In addition, Honey Media subscriber number boosted in the first quarter thanks to popular journal packages and international badminton games held during the quarter. We expect the growth trend to continue for this year as popular international sports events will be held one after another to attract subscribers such as the Asia Games and FIFA World Cup held in the second half. Please turn to slide 10 for our enterprise business group performance. In the first quarter, enterprise business group revenue increased 2.1% due to the year-over-year growth of mobile and fixed-program revenues. and the enterprise customers increased communication usage in the new normal. In addition, overseas Taiwanese small and medium enterprises that shift their operations and investments back home also brought in fixed broadband demand and related revenues. For enterprises, ICT business, we are glad to see the total gross margin and the profits increased year-over-year in the first quarter. The revenue decreased year-over-year owing to certain differs of project revenue recognition. However, we remain positive about the four-year performance of our enterprise ICT business. Slide 11 demonstrates our enterprise business highlights. We are glad to report growth momentum of our emerging enterprise applications. In the first quarter, 5G enterprise private network revenue tripled its growth year over year, affirming our strong progress ahead of our peers. On a year-over-year basis, mobile ICT revenue and IDC revenue increased in the first quarter due to compression of large projects, while cybersecurity revenue reached double-digit growth attributable to an increase in both project and recurring revenue. Our efforts to develop capabilities of big data analysis work out and achieve the 9% revenue growth. For ICT project performance, we work with subsidiaries, the Zhonghua System Integration and Zhonghua Security International, to successfully acquire the first smart harbor project in Taiwan to realize 5G unmanned vehicle inspection. We also acquired a large integrated smart health project, which translates our strong network and ICT capabilities into long-term recurring revenues. Going forward, we will continue to leverage company resources and technologies to further develop our enterprise business opportunities. Slide 12 demonstrates our international business performance to duplicate our successful solutions and services to the overseas market. For decades, our international business group has continued to develop a localized approach in many overseas markets and serves global clients to deliver services in Taiwan, which is a unique advantage for Zhonghua among peers in Taiwan. In the first quarter, our international business group revenues increased 13.8%, mainly from growing demand of our IBC cloud and ICT services offering for global clients, including some of global OTT service providers. Our strategy is to cater to the growing business opportunities and provide opportunities quotable service including phase 9, undersea cable, IDC, and high net period to sustain revenue growth. I would like to highlight our investment in international undersea cables. In particular, primarily in the SJC2 and the airport, appropriate consortiums. that enable us to capitalize on growing opportunities from international OTT service providers. Now, I would like to turn the call to Vincent for our financial highlights.

Thank you, President Guo. Good afternoon, everyone. I will now walk you through our first quarter financial results. Let's start with slide 14 that provides highlights from our income statement. For the first quarter of 2022, total job news increased by 2.4% on a year-over-year basis, while operating costs and expenses increased by 1.7%, mainly due to the increase of personnel expenses of subsidiaries amid business growth and depreciation expenses from the deployment of 5G networks. Income from operations increased by 4.6%, and our net income increased by 2.5%. EPS increased by $0.02 to $1.16 in Q1, compared with same quarter last year. In addition, our EBITDA margin increased to 41.51% from 41.08% in the prior year period. Please turn to slide 15 for our balance sheet highlights. Comparing to December 31, 2021, total assets increased by $5.38 billion, or 1.1%. Total liabilities decreased by $3.78 billion, or 3.1%. The increase of total assets was mainly due to cash proceeds from issuance of sustainable bonds. The decrease of total liabilities was mainly due to the payment of accounts payable for equipment and suppliers, which offset the increase of bonds payable. Debt ratio is 22.77%, and net debt over EBITDA is minus 0.17 times, which demonstrates our financial strength. Slide 16 shows our cash flow summary. Cash flows from operating activities for the first quarter of 2022 increased by 19.8% year-over-year to $11.84 billion, mainly due to the increase of net income before tax and the increase of collections of accounts receivables. As for our capital expenditure, in the first quarter, 5G capex spending increased year-over-year, due to cash outflows for 5G network deployment constructed in last quarter. We see a 22% increase of free cash flows in Q1 compared with same quarter last year. Altogether, these numbers demonstrate strong cash flows generated from our operating activities, which provides strong support to fund our operations and future expansions. On page 17, we present a table that compares our financial results with forecasts. As you can see, in the first quarter of 2022, our revenue almost met our first quarter guidance, and the performance measures, including income from operations, net income, EPS, EBITDA, and EBITDA margin, all beat our guidance. Revenue attributed to project business fell short of our expectation, where we had better than expected revenues of core business from mobile services and broadband access. Operating costs and expenses were lower than our first quarter guidance because of lower project business costs, maintenance, and repair costs. That's the end of the financial review section. Now I turn the call back to President Guo. Please, President Guo.

Slide 18 illustrates our awards and recognitions in the first quarter, highlighting the domestic and international recognitions for ESG and ICT achievements. We received the award of FMP Global Sustainability Award ranking as one of the top 10 in the global telecom sector and affirming our leading status of ESG practices and sustainable operations. We were also the award winner in the Smart City Summer Expo in Taiwan for our excellent innovative digital application delivered in Thailand. In addition, we possess the accreditation from AWS, Microsoft, and Google in the first quarter to further sustain our international public cloud services. Thank you for your attention. Now, I would like to open the floor for questions.

Thank you. We are now beginning our question and answer session. If you have a question for any of today's speakers, please press 01 on your telephone keypad and you will enter a queue. After you are announced, please ask your question. When you are speaking, please be louder or closer to the microphone. If you find that your question has been answered before it is your turn to speak, please press 02 to cancel the question. Our first question is coming from Neil Anderson from HSBC. Go ahead, please.

Thank you. Good afternoon. So I have a question on the international business, please. So very good growth in the first quarter. But my question relates to how that relates to your prior reporting. And what I assume is it's quite similar. Most of the business is quite similar to what used to be international fixed. And that had good growth in the fourth quarter of last year. But prior to that, it was a little bit mixed. So could you, do you expect this growth rate to continue and are there any sort of legacy businesses in that segment that will likely decline over time or that must be gone?

Thank you. So for the international business group, right? So basically we reorganized the revenue structure. So basically now the IBG revenue is comprised of several hundred plus global accounts. And for the business line, in addition to the traditional, the international, the roaming, and the long distance, and for the, it also includes the submarine cable business, and also for IDC and cloud. So these are the major business lines of the international business group.

Okay, so other operators have reported declines in things like international wholesale choice, but it sounds like most of the businesses in this segment are businesses that we can expect to grow. Would that be fair to say?

You are right. Because we reorganized the revenue structure, so it's not fair to compare the IPG performance with that of the last year. You just mentioned what we expect the growth rate is going to be, right? So we are still quite positive about the revenue growth from our global accounts. So we expect the revenue momentum to go up. This is based on our observation from the recent business trend and business climate.

Got it. Thank you. That's very helpful. Could I just ask one more question about the enterprise business? It's a similar question. In that new reporting, you've got mobile, fixed, ICT, and other. Could you tell us a bit more what is in the other part of the enterprise business and how you expect that to grow or decline this year, please?

Okay. I think for the others revenue for the EBG is, you know, comprised of, you know, like international public, like a satellite communication or some, you know, sales revenue. Yeah. And, you know, some revenues from the undersea cable.

Yeah. Okay. Thanks very much.

Thank you. As a reminder, when you are speaking, please be louder or closer to the microphone. Thank you. The next question is coming from Peter Milliker, Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, please.

Hi. Good afternoon. My question is on the ARPU. You mentioned that when people migrate to 5G, they're spending 35% more. That's a big number, and it's good to see. My question is, How much of that increase is kind of taken out by handset subsidies that go with those deals? Is there some sort of net number that you can provide of how much more you're getting on 5G after accounting for handset costs? Thank you.

Okay, Peter, for your first question, because we don't discuss such information to the public, that's for your questions.

Right, okay. Is there... Is there any... Is there any... Any significant change, though, that we could see? Like, would you say that the people that are churning off these contracts are on the 499 plans? Now they're typically taking 999 and getting a hand-fed subsidy. Is that what's happening?

No.

Okay, so for this number, right, so actually it's definitely increased, but we don't discuss the specific numbers.

Okay. All right, thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, press 01 on your keypad if you would like to ask a question. The next question is coming from Sarah Wong, UBS. Go ahead, please.

Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. So, I have just one question. So, I'm going to ask, how's the IG penetration and migration trend so far? And what's our target by the end of this year? Thank you.

For the IG penetration rate, right, the target toward the end of the year will be the 30 percent. And now we passed 20% postmark. So we are on the drive track to hit the target.

Got it. And just one quick follow-up. What do you think is the biggest driver for 5G migration? For example, is it handset or is it faster speed or application, et cetera?

Actually, you know, just like you said, the headset is kind of, you know, a driver to push up 5G migration. And other than that, we also expect that the 5G innovative applications also can, you know, help 5G migration to increase. For example, like the, you know, AR and VR-related services, gaming applications, and other, you know, like life with music applications. All of those are the, you know, the innovative applications that the users would like to choose to, you know, to increase the overall 5G migration.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 01. Thank you. The next question is coming from Marvin Lou from Bloomberg. Go ahead, please.

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Actually, I have two questions. The first one is about the Mother's Day promotion, which I read from the news. That seems to be quite a significant discount. I'm just wondering if that would have any impact on the monthly fee uplift for the second quarter. The second question is related to the recent increase in the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan starting at the end of April. I'm just wondering if that would have any impact on the performance of the company in the second quarter as well.

Thanks. Okay, so thank you, Marvin, for your question. So for your first question about the promotion, right, Actually, it doesn't affect our output, our monthly output. For your second, it's about COVID-19, right? So because the telecom business is a steady business, so we don't think that will severely affect our business. Because the COVID-19 also may affect the disruption in the supply of products, right? But in fact, we have already taken precautionary measures to prevent that from happening. So we have already taken measures to mitigate that kind of risk.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 01. Thank you. As a reminder, press 01 on your keypad if you would like to ask a question. Please press 01 to ask the question. Thank you. Also, reminder, press 01 on your keypad if you would like to ask the question. If there are no further questions, I will turn it back over to President Guo. Go ahead, please.

Thank you for your participation. Goodbye, everyone.

Thank you, President Guo. Thank you for your participation in Chunghua Telecom's conference. There will be a webcast replay within an hour. Please visit www.chd.com.tw slash IR under the IR calendar section. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.