Cogeco Inc.

Good day and welcome to Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Patrice Ouimet, Chief Financial Officer of Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Communications Inc. Please go ahead, Mr. Ouimet.

Good morning and welcome to our first quarter results conference call. So as usual, before we begin the call, I'd like to remind listeners that today's discussion will include estimates and other forward-looking information. We ask that you review the cautionary language in the press releases and NDNA issued yesterday, as well as in our annual reports regarding the various risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ. With that, I'll pass the line to Fred Perron for opening remarks.

Merci, Patrice. Good morning, everyone, and a warm, happy new year. Our consolidated results for the quarter were in line with our plan, as well as what we had mentioned to you last quarter, and we're on track to deliver our guidance for the full year for all KPIs. In the U.S., our turnaround is working. We've materially improved our subscriber trends for a second consecutive quarter, just as we said we would, translating into our best US customer metrics in the past 15 quarters. And we're just getting started. Our goal is now to grow our customer base across our entire US operation on a repeatable basis. We had told you that this was the gold for Ohio in the past, and we're now delivering on that. So we're now further raising our ambition in light of our latest plans and progress. We won't be hitting that new ambition next quarter quite yet, but it is within realistic reach in the medium term. It's important to remind everyone of a few key points about our American business. First, in half of our U.S. footprint, our penetration is still below 20%, which gives us ample room to keep growing our customer base in those areas and offset any losses in other regions. Second, we're making great progress at selectively upgrading our network in a capital-efficient manner, including the launch of 2.5 gigabit speeds during the quarter, which is helping us protect and grow our business in key areas. Third, we're still in the process of ramping up new sales channels and beefing up important marketing capabilities. We're also launching an Oxio-like fully digital second brand next month. Thanks to the above points and more, we're confident about materially improving financial trends for our U.S. business starting in the second half of this year. This was already recognized by Moody's, NSNP, who both improved their outlook on our debt in recent weeks, while DBRS reaffirmed its stable outlook. In Canada, our performance remains solid and resilient with positive year-on-year EBITDA trends. We continue to consistently grow our customer base, and our wireless subscriber growth is also going well. Wireline competitive intensity got a little heated in some of our markets during Black Friday and through the holidays, so we expect a more modest wireline customer growth in the upcoming Q2. but this remains manageable overall from a revenue perspective. Before turning to our radio operations, I'd like to reflect on yesterday's report released by the Commission for Complaints for Telecom and Television Services, which ranked Cogeco as the best telecommunications company in Canada in terms of customer complaint reduction when aggregating brands. In a year where complaints within the telecom industry rose by 17%, Cogeco made significant progress in improving its customer service, which has resulted in a leading 15% reduction in customer complaints versus the prior year, a 25% reduction in billing complaints, and no breaches to the internet codes. At Cogeco Media, Q1 revenue increased again this quarter, on a year-over-year basis, lifted by strength in our digital advertising solutions and continued listener engagement. So, in closing, I'd summarize our overall situation by saying that our three-year transformation is on track, that our Canadian performance is resilient and solid, our US turnaround is working, And last but not least, we continue to have one of the best balance sheets and cash flow profiles in the industry, which positions us well to keep increasing shareholder value over time, just as we have been. On that, I'll turn it over to Patrice for more details about our results.