Megacable Hldgs Sab Ord

Good morning. Welcome to MedaCable's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. With us this morning, we have Mr. Enrique Yamoni, CEO, Raimundo 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 prospects, which are subject to risk and uncertainties. MedaCable undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Enrique Yamuni.

Sir, you may begin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our first quarter results once again demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model. We continue recording subscriber revenue growth and delivered the highest EBITDA margin in the past 10 quarters. Despite ongoing macroeconomics uncertainty, including international trade tensions and lower GDP growth, These results reflect the strategic clarity and operational discipline that have guided our company through many cycles, positioning us as one of the most consistent performers in the Mexican telephone industry. Regarding our operating results, during this period we continued to grow our subscriber base within the expected range, maintaining a healthy pace of gross additions even with the price increase we carried out at the beginning of the period. A key driver of this performance continues to be the resilient support connectivity offering, particularly internet services, which has become an essential part of daily life for millions of people. Since the pandemic, it has proven its critical importance across multiple aspects of society, from remote work in education to entertainment and communication. This has positioned internet as a core product of our commercial strategy, consolidating its role as a fundamental service. The corporate results remain in the same level, with the connectivity vertical growing in line with the expectation, with a reduced contribution from special projects during the period. During this quarter, the integration of OLA, Metro Carrier, and NCM into NCM Business Tech Co. was carried out with the objective of generating greater synergies to maximize profitability. We are convinced that this new structure will allow us to better serve our corporate clients, strengthen our B2B portfolio, and accelerate market expansion across the segments. The increase in revenue, coupled with repetitive efficiencies and a tight controlling cost, were reflected in EBITDA growing faster than revenue, leading to highest EBITDA margin in the last 10 quarters. This, in line with the company's expectation of margin expansion, was driven by higher penetration in the new territories. We believe this trend will be sustainable in the short and medium term as we continue consolidating efficiencies across operations, both in legacy and new markets. Regarding our investment initiatives, during the quarter, the pace of network construction was lower, as we focused on consolidating recent builds and optimizing the use of our existing infrastructure. We anticipate increasing our goal of doubling the company infrastructure size compared to the end of October 2021. Our current strategy prioritizes capital efficiency, scale optimization, and deeper market penetration. This is reflected in the capex to revenue ratio, which is lower than in 2024. At the same time, we remain focused on our network evolution strategy, We're steadily advancing towards becoming a full-fledged company, keeping in mind that in a very competitive market, having the best and more advanced technology is key to succeed. Coupled with a preference for innovation and a culture of continuous service improvement, at quarter end, approximately 80% of our total network is already full-fledged. These results, together with those of 2024, contributed that yesterday at our annual ordinary shareholders meeting, the payment of a dividend for approximately 2.9 billion pesos was approved, equivalent to 20% of the EBITDA recorded last year. This represents one of the most attractive dividends yields in the market, close to 8%. Looking ahead, Our expectations for 2025 remain unchanged. We are confident in the resilience of our services, particularly Internet. Our current efforts are fully centered on completing our expansion plan. We anticipate that revenue and digital growth will accelerate in the coming periods, despite the challenging environments trading towards global digital levels. which in addition to the already lower capital revenue ratio will significantly improve our expectations for higher cash generation we face the rest of the year with clarity and focus supported by a scalable platform strong fundamentals and a proven ability to execute our strategies Before I hand it over to Raymundo, the co-owner, I would like to emphasize that, with no doubt, we are the best positioned telco company within the market with great revenue growth, low R2, high margins, great product quality, customer-oriented service, state-of-the-art network and technology, and finally, a great organization. Under this basis, great results should continue in the future. Now, please, Raimundo, go ahead with the rest of the information.

Thanks, Enrique. Good morning, everyone. During the first quarter of the year, our operating efforts were focused mainly on two fronts. Continue with a solid growth trend in our operating metrics and consolidate our corporate telecom segment into a single operation. We can proudly say that we have reached significant achievements in each of these lines. Regarding our first one, this quarter unique subscriber reached 5.6 million, growing 10% year-over-year, representing a net addition of 524,000 subscribers, of which 93,000 were registered this quarter. This growth is within the ranges expected by the company, including gross additions that remains at the same level of previous quarters and the effect of a slightly higher disconnection rate resulting from the price increase we made in February. By segment, internet subscriber increased 11% on a year-over-year basis to 5.4 million, equivalent to 539,000 net additions, of which 100,000 were added this quarter, a figure within the expected quarterly growth range of 100 to 150,000 net additions. Telephony subscribers grew 14% in a year-over-year basis, equivalent to 596,000 net additions in the last 12 months. of which 84,000 were recorded this quarter. Thus, the number of telephone subscribers exceeded the 4.8 million mark, benefited by our service bundling strategy. The MVNO segment registered almost 576,000 subscribers, representing an increase of 25% on a year-over-year basis, as a result of the net addition of 115,000 subscribers in the last 12 months. including 22,000 this quarter. Remember that this service is focused on rounding our value offering. On the video side, subscriber total 3.8 million, increasing 21,000 subscribers this quarter, a trend consistent with global industry shifts, and a sales mix more inclined towards double play. Nevertheless, our XView platform, a key part of our value offering in the video segment, continues to strengthen its subscriber base, reaching 3.5 million, which represents an increase of 15% year-over-year, equivalent to 458,000 net additions, of which 58,000 were registered this quarter, reflecting our efforts to match customers' digital preferences. Likewise, app subscribers grew 34% year-over-year to 1.1 million, representing 276,000 net additions. During this quarter, shunt rates increased sequentially, standing at 2.1% for internet and 2.5% for video and telephone, mainly due to the price adjustment carried out in January. In line with the above, ARPU per unique subscriber remained unchanged in both annual and sequential basis, totaling 417.5 pesos this quarter due to a higher number of double-plate bundles in relation to the unique subscribers. on the second front. As announced by the companies in January, we started integration between OLA, MetroCADR, and MCM. Therefore, as of this quarter, the results of these three subsidiaries are now consolidated within MCM business sector. This consolidation was way beyond reporting. So this quarter, we work in the integration of the sales force, consolidation of the backend and frontend support system, definitions of the new roles for the administrative personnel, and everything related to the infrastructure consolidation, among other relevant tasks. We are certain that the results of this study will soon be reflected in scenarios and value creation for our company. To close, I would like to emphasize that the trend of the company continues to reflect growth our key operating indicators remain strong at healthy levels, positive to continue bringing more and more families with the best connectivity towards our coordination network in a world where internet remains essential in the daily life. Thank you for your attention. I will now hand in the call to Luis in the financial review.

Thank you, Raquel. Good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, we successfully navigated a challenging macro environment and delivered resilient results that reflect our ability to maintain steady revenue growth and preserve financial strength. Consolidated revenues reached 8.6 billion pesos during the quarter, an 8% year-over-year flow, primarily driven by solid performance in our mass market segment that grew 9% year-over-year. reflecting the sustained momentum from internet and telephone subscriber expansion. Our corporate segment increased 1% year-over-year, driven by the 14% growth in the content business. Corporate telecom remained practically unchanged due to a weaker performance in the special project segment. Nevertheless, we anticipate sequential improvement throughout next quarters. given mainly by steady growth on the content connectivity version. Cost of services for the first quarter increased 5% year-over-year to 2.3 billion pesos, reflecting inflationary preference, but remains a low revenue growth. SG&A rose 10% year-over-year to 2.4 billion pesos, primarily due to operating charges, mainly on labor costs, on wages and commissions. Quarterly, every day, 3.8% year-over-year, totaling 4.0 billion pesos. Every day, the market expanded to 46.3% compared to 46.1% a year. Thus, underscoring our operational efficiencies in new territories despite the challenging environment. During the quarter, net income reached 722 million pesos, representing the increased year-over-year predominantly impacted by significantly higher depreciation without any cash flow effects, which were up 15% year-over-year. Same that are related to our infrastructure investments and grants to the existing network. Additionally, net income However, on a sequential basis, a 38% increase was recorded supported by a lower financial expense. It is important to mention that in light with the prevailing environment of lower interest rates, this should help to support the net income recovery in the following periods. This corrects capital expenditures lowered as planned for the benefit of our cash flow generation. CAPEX to revenue ratio was 26.8% this quarter, down from 29.5% in the same period of last year. Our balance sheet remains strong and healthy. Net debt close the quarter of 21.1 million pesos, representing a sequential decrease. Therefore, net debt to EBITDA ratio improved to 1.41 times from the 1.50 times recorded year end of 2024, showing our commitment to responsible leverage, which remains among the lowest in the industry. Our debt remains fully denominated in Mexican pesos, mitigating foreign currency exposure. Our interest-commerce ratio was 5.2 times as for the quarter end, reflecting the government's strength in meeting its financial commitments. Before concluding, I'd also like to note that during the quarter, mega companies received settlement of all the outstanding accounts received from Lantana, including the payment of our equity stake. So this quarter, our relationship with Lantana is strictly that of provider and customer. To conclude, certainly in the first quarter of 2025, we saw a steady growth in the revenues and editor. a discipline expense management and ceiling profitability and the exposition of costs in a mixed and macronomic environment. But all in all, we remain optimistic for 2025 as we continue to balance disciplined capital allocation to carefully selected growth opportunities. Thank you for your trust. I will now open the floor for questions. If you have a question, please use your raise your hand button of your Zoom application, or you can also type your question in the Q&A section of the Zoom platform. Please make sure that you are not muted when it's your time to participate. Our first question comes from Marcelo Santos from JPMorgan.

Marcelo, please go ahead. Hi, good morning, Henrique, Raimundo, Luis, Saúl. Thank you. Thanks for the question. I have two. You had a strong margin evolution this quarter. I think the second half last year was a bit weaker, but it had very good recovery. How should we think margins going forward? That's the first question. And the second question is regarding the capex outlook. Do you still expect capex as a percentage of revenues to be a bit below what it was last year? Or could you provide some updated views about this year and the evolution? Thank you very much.

Yeah, Marcelo, thanks for the question. The evidence, yes, we foresee a consistent increase or expansion on the following point, but this is more a general growth as you established in the first quarter of last year was similar with a weaker second quarter. We expect an increase in the basis points in the margins.

And let me compliment that. There are several factors moving around margin performance, Marcelo. Two of the most relevant are the fact that the margin in expansion territories continues to rise mostly in line with the higher penetration. The second is that the fact that the margin is below that of the organic territories. And the more weight of the results of expansion have, when compared to the consolidated figures, this should drive consolidated margin down. All in all, the expectation of the companies to see a slight margin expansion on a sequential basis. That will be our point in the first part.

Perfect.

And then second list, he was asking related to the capital level for 2025.

Yeah, we expect the capital to continue with the increase in investments as a percentage of revenues. Then we expect levels around 28% for 2025.

And complementing what Luis is telling you, this percentage that we expect, of course, includes the expansion and special capex that we have since we haven't finished all the special projects that we have. It's not only the organic, but it's the organic plus the special capex that we have. And we're very proud of continuing to decrease as we promised before in the other conference.

Perfect. Just to clarify on the margins, do you expect expansion on a sequential basis, not annual? Also annual, but sequential, just to be sure.

On a normal basis, we expect an expansion. It's difficult to say on a sequential basis as the VARC is almost 200 basis pounds increase in this quarter compared to the previous one. All in all, for me, we see an expansion in the markets.

Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Okay. The next question comes from the line of Vitor Tomita from Goldman Sachs. Vitor, go ahead.

Hello. Good morning, all, and thanks for taking our questions. Two questions from our side. The first one is on how you are seeing the competitive environment right now, if you could give us a bit more color. with some competitors potentially not raising prices this year and you having already successfully implemented a price up in January. And our second question would be that on ARPUs, given the competitive environment and the reduction in video subscribers, should we expect ARPU to continue to maybe trend down a bit or remain a bit flattish, a bit pressured? Or do you see room for ARPU to begin growing this year adopting more positive trends now that your expansion in homes past has decelerated and the new users should be a declining percentage of total users. Thank you.

Thank you, Vito. Regarding the first question on the competition environment, as we are all aware, the main competitor, not the main, but the high competitor, in this case, Telmex, has announced in the past that they want to increase the rates in the double-blade package, regardless whether that company loses money or not. That's something that we don't agree and it should be a push into the regulator to put effort on that. Companies and the industry should follow a healthy profit in that part. So it doesn't make any sense and we're fighting on that part. Having said that, we cannot increase significantly the prices of the double-play package if Telmex does not do that. The good part for that for Mega Cable is that we have lived with that in the past. with a low R2 on that top. That's why when we increase rates, we try to increase to certain segment of the market and we cannot do it in that. We have couple tools to manage this problem with the competition, regardless of the play and easy the other two main competitors, they all have their strategy of selling double and triple play package, increasing apps. We are all competing in that. That's why during this quarter, we also include in our offer, in our triple play offer. That's why we're pushing triple play. We include two of the major apps, one that it was before, Paramount Plus, and now we're including Amazon Prime. So we believe we have a very robust offer All of this with the increasing margin that was reported. All of this with the increase of subscribers that we have. So in the worst case scenario, we continue to provide growth in revenue and a slight increase in margins, like we say, with all this competitive environment. And we're very, very proud. The resilience of our network, the 80% of the fiber that Enrique told us makes us very competitive. and resilience to any attack in the market with the low ARPU that we have. That will be my view of the competition and the competitive market from that part. Now, regarding the ARPU, there is no question about the trend of the video service observed in many markets, and ours is not an exception. In this context, we would like to highlight that Mega was resilient and the last operator to report video disconnections. as our subscriber base shifts to higher percentage of double plays, this decrease the average ticket per customers. This has been upset in the past, as I said, with the rate increases on the apps that we're putting. That's why you see that the ARPU remains steady. Also, there is a big number of subscribers in the expansion market that has a promotion that are not being able to grow. All that in the future, it has to continue to slightly increase. I know we have said that in the past, but it's hard to do it with all the different factors that I'm explaining to you. I don't know if I put too many factors, but that's the view completely of the organization.

That's clear. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Vito. Okay, the next question comes from the line of Luca Brendan from Bank of America.

Hi, good morning everyone. Can you guys hear me? Yes, yes. Okay, perfect. So I have two questions on my side. The first one is related to churn. Churn increased this quarter and you guys mentioned it was mainly due to the price increases in January. So I just wanted to check if everything is already back to the normal levels at the end of the quarter and if we can expect the next quarter to already be back. And the second one, do you guys already have any view on the new proposed changes to the telecommunications laws in Mexico? Or you think it's still too soon to have any view on that? Thank you.

Thank you, Luca. I will take the one with the Sean and we'll address the telecommunication proposal, new law proposed as a second part. Regarding the Sean, we expect the Sean not to be below what we have in an average last year. As we said, the churn was affected during this quarter because of the price increase. Last year was on a different personality because the price increase was not in January. So that's a reason why we have a slight increase in the churn. So we expect to have a churn very similar to what we have as an average in the past year. you can look into that and then you'll find. So it will be lower than what we have right now, okay, in that part, but close to what we have last year, probably between 1.9 and 2% short on that part. And we're happy in that, on that level in short because of the high growth that we have in subscribers. That's part of the one. And then regardless of Telco,

I can go in there.

You want to go there?

Yeah. Well, you know, as you know, this only was released two days ago. Actually, it was released at 10 p.m. the day before yesterday. We've been in communications with some people from, you know, in the government and also in Congress and with certain chambers in Mexico, like the Chamber of Commerce. radio and television, the broadcasters. As you know, we are active members of Cagnetti, used to be chairman there. And then we've been talking to other operators, you know, wireless and pay television and fixed telecommunications. We have received good feedback from Congress. They are very much willing to discuss but it's on the table. I think they have realized that they have made that. You know, there's some things that can be tempered or, you know, softened and getting a better law. I think that will happen. And, you know, all the chambers, all the operators, all the companies, rolling with the government and Congress to accomplish that. I think the result is going to be much, much better than what we've seen. And of course, well, the government puts on the table something to negotiate for sure. It's harder than we expected, but I think we will have a much better result at the end.

Also, let me ask that regardless of what it says there, that it might put some red flags into that regulation that we, of course, don't agree. We believe that any changes in the industry related to regulation, it is different that something is allowed to compared to something is able to. Meaning that In order to provide services to get into the underground of the networks, to get into providing services to a final end subscribers, all that, the industry has more than 160,000 kilometers of last mile, plus interurban. All of that is impossible to restructure in a day-to-day. So what we believe is that that we have lived with a government that has more control instead of an independent regulator. We don't like it, but we did it in the past. And at the end, the economics and the logic of the country will prevail. So we believe our plans are the same. We continue to grow. There are some things like Enrique says that we will have to agree and negotiate, but we are secure that all our plans will continue to do and they will be delivered in diffusion. Thank you, Luca.

Very clear. Thank you for the answers.

Okay. The next question comes from the line of Carlos de la Garreta. Let me know.

Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for taking the question. Just on the corporate side, the results have been relatively soft in the past couple of quarters. I just want to understand if this is due to uneasy comparisons or you're overall seeing a weaker demand. And also on that line, or more generally, the year-by-year expansion that you had in EBITDA margin, to what extent this is related to the commercial integration of the three corporate brands?

Do you want to go, Luis, and I compliment? Yeah, go.

On the corporate side.

Because it's the comparison. I've been talking about the comparison of the corporate one period to the other.

Yeah, there were some strong comparisons based on the last year quarter that was strong in the corporate, but we expect to detect growth in the corporate segment to reach five to 10% in the following quarter.

And start getting some of the synergies that we expect between that, getting the Ola metro car and MCM into one single company in that part. Of course, it will give us a pace back on the revenue, like Luis is saying, between 5% to 10%. That's what we expect for the year. Mostly from corporate and residential services, you know, it's been tough with government contracts in that part. And the rest, we still have that synergies to to come from that merge between the companies. The other one is the year-over-year regular. How much was that ? The question is actually related.

I don't know if the expansion is explained by the synergies in corporate, or there's maybe an improvement also on the mass market segment.

It is mostly from the mass market. It is from the mass market, Carlos, on that part. We still haven't seen that. And the scenarios are going to be over the size of the MCM at the beginning, you know, on that part with 15 to 20% of the SG&A that it has before. We believe that between 150 to 200 million will come on a year basis, coming from that scenario. What we are more excited is that we will continue to have a pace of growth in the corporate coming from the merge of those three divisions into a new technical. So the margin is coming from NASA on that part. And it's coming because the improvement of the margin in the expansion systems, as we are having more subscribers and time passes by, we have better margins in the expansion. that contribute to the already good margin and excellent margin that we have in the organic.

That's very good. Thank you, Raimundo.

Thank you, Carlos. Okay, our next question comes from the line of Alejandro Lavin from Santander.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. So, first of all, congrats on the solid execution. As you mentioned, this is a tough environment, but yet you're still showing decent results, solid results. So congrats on that. Now, delving deeper into the EBITDA breakdown, right? I see that you provide the breakdown in your press release, in page number five. EBITDA grew 8% year on year, right? But if we look at the breakdown, operating profit is flat year-on-year and depreciation is up 15%, which is then the main driver of the EBITDA expansion year-on-year. So if we get a little picky with the growth or the quality of growth, we would like to see operating profit also growing 8% or all the lines growing 8% and not depreciation driving the entirety of the EBITDA growth. So I would like to hear your thoughts on this. I guess on this disparity and especially thinking of the rest of the year or going forward, if this trend could be repeated going forward.

Thank you. Sure. Thanks for the question. You have to consider that we are coming from a very, very intensive CapEx cycle. And all these investments are basically increasing the depreciations in the larger premium factor than before, and maybe larger than the growth that they're having in other areas. So that's mainly seen for the depreciation growing 15%. Yes, I agree with you. We would like to have that normalized, and we can expect that to be true once we are completed with the expansion and the conversion of the network to fiber?

Like Luis is saying, and thank you for the question, Alejandro, by the way. We all need to understand the time of our organization on that part. We, at the end of 2021, have the goal represented to our board, the plan to expand the company, doubling the size, and also to rebuild all the network to fiber. At this point, you know, being at the beginning of 2025, we achieved more than 17.5 million home paths when we were at the beginning, 9 million. We were very successful in doubling the infrastructure of the company. We have been very successful in operating the network from HFC. We took 45,000 kilometers of HFC out and built fiber. So we shield our systems to competition, having the best technology. and all of that managed with a low ARPU and high margins. What we're doing in 2025, 26, 27 and on is to continue to present growth of EBITDA and revenues and continue to decline capex. As you have that continued EBITDA growth, you will see that the operating and depreciation will become more steady compared to the growth of EBITDA and you will have a higher generation of free cash flow And of course, a return on higher margins. So this company cannot be measured on April 2025. It has to be measured on the project of five years. That is the view that we have as an administration here.

Okay, yeah. I understand perfectly that you invest up front and you harvest these investments throughout several years. So I'm only, I guess, asking if you expect these conversions in, let's say, in a couple of years, two or three years, when, as you mentioned, you stop investing in growth in these projects, and then EBITDA continues contributing and growing higher and higher, or EBIT in this case, and then the lines converge, and that's it. Just a normal investment cycle, right?

Exactly like you put it, Alejandro. Yeah, you have a perfect view. You have the perfect view.

Okay, under time. Thank you guys.

Thank you for the question.

And the next question comes from Alex Assad from TV.

Hi guys, good morning. A quick one is just on on. on CapEx, I'm sorry, on cash and cash flows, your taxes have been very low in the last two years. And I think, I guess that's because you are using your depreciation of the network. But I'm just wondering when would you, you know, when should we see higher taxes on the cash flows in the next couple of years?

Well, we expect the taxes to be flat as we are.

The same level of percentage.

The same level of percentage. We are on basically 30%, which is the tax rate in Mexico. So we don't foresee an increase in tax. And your advice, we are using depreciation over years. to reduce the taxes, but once we reduce the depreciation, the taxes will go up as the profit will go up. So it will be a percentage of the net income coming up.

Yes, Luis, but just to clarify, before the expansion plan, you were having like 1.5 billion pesos in cash taxes. 2023, 2024, you have 500 million, even though you're a bigger company. That's what I'm saying. So it's been lower now. So when should we see that you eat up all your tax credits in the next couple of years from the expansion plan, I mean?

Yeah. It will take a couple of years to get out of that situation because of the depreciation. As we said, we're coming out of the high cycle, high capital cycle, and the depreciation will take a couple of years to be digested. And yes, but it will go up as net income goes. So it will be basically a percentage of the net income.

Okay, and one more, if I may. Considering the strong free cash flow quarter this 2025, are you expecting positive free cash flow for the entire year? Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, sure. But that's not enough to cover the dividend that you announced, right?

Yeah, well, we meant before dividend,

Perfect. That will be all.

Thank you, guys. We have no more questions through the phone. We have two questions through the chat. One from Andres Coelho in Claudia Flores related to the telco law. I think we have answered that. We have answered it.

We do expect to have a much better relationship with this government than with the last government. for sure. We have an open communication with these guys, and I think everything will turn out much better.

Okay, well, with no more questions in the queue, this session is concluded. I pass the call over to Mr. Enrique Amuni for final remarks.

Thank you very much, and we for sure will alert to any doubts that you have or any more information that you might need. Contact our investor relationship department if you have any questions or concerns about the company. And have a wonderful day and a great weekend. Thank you.

Thank you all for being in the conference.