Telenet net profit falls 20% in Q3

Telenet Group Holding NV (“Telenet” or the “Company”) announces its unaudited consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (“EU IFRS”) for the nine months ended September 30, 2021.

Highlights

• Continued commercial traction in Q3 2021, including a strong uptake of net new FMC customers driven by our new “ONE(Up)” bundles (+27,300), +7,500 net new broadband internet RGUs and +9,100 net mobile postpaid subscribers.
• The fixed monthly ARPU per customer relationship reached €59.0 in 9M 2021, up 1% yoy, driven by a higher share of both higher-tier broadband and multiple-play customers in our overall customer mix and the benefit of certain price adjustments, partly offset by a greater proportion of revenue being allocated to mobile telephony from our recently launched “ONE(Up)” FMC bundles compared to our legacy bundles.
• 9M 2021 revenue of €1,928.9 million, +1% yoy on both a reported and rebased⁽¹⁾ basis, driven by a solid expansion of our total subscription revenue and our B2B business. Broadly stable revenue in Q3 2021 compared to Q3 last year, both on a reported and rebased basis, to €640.6 million driven by the same factors as mentioned above and almost fully offset by a 5% decline in our rebased other revenue.
• Net profit of €301.7 million in 9M 2021 (Q3 2021: €90.0 million), +1% yoy, which reflected significantly lower net finance expense, almost fully offset by higher income tax expense.
• 9M 2021 Adjusted EBITDA⁽²⁾ of €1,027.1 million, -1% yoy, including changes to the IFRS accounting treatment of certain content-related costs for our premium entertainment packages and the Belgian football broadcasting rights because of changes related to the underlying contracts as of Q3 2020. On a rebased basis, our 9M 2021 Adjusted EBITDA increased almost 2% yoy driven by a 5% decline in direct costs and healthy organic top line growth over the period. Q3 2021 Adjusted EBITDA of €338.4 million, marking a decline of 1% yoy both on a reported and rebased basis, reflecting a tougher comparison base against the same period of last year and seasonality in some of our operating expenses.
• Accrued capital expenditures⁽³⁾ of €417.2 million in 9M 2021 (Q3 2021: €135.4 million), -2% versus 9M last year and approximately 22% of revenue. Excluding the recognition of certain football broadcasting rights and the temporary extension of both our 2G and 3G mobile spectrum licenses, our 9M 2021 accrued capital expenditures were €397.0 million, equivalent to approximately 21% of revenue.
• Adjusted EBITDA less property & equipment additions (previously referred to as Operating Free Cash Flow)⁽⁴⁾ of €630.1 million in 9M 2021 (Q3 2021: €211.8 million), +2% yoy, mainly driven by substantially lower investments compared to 9M last year. On a rebased basis and excluding the recognition of both football broadcasting rights and mobile spectrum licenses, as well as the impact of certain lease-related capital additions on our accrued capital expenditures, our 9M 2021 Adjusted EBITDA less property & equipment additions was up just over 2% yoy.
• Net cash from operating activities, net cash used in investing activities and net cash used in financing activities of €743.3 million, €373.1 million and €257.9 million, respectively, in 9M 2021. Our 9M 2021 Adjusted Free Cash Flow⁽⁵⁾ increased 22% yoy to €314.1 million, mainly driven by (i) €14.4 million lower cash taxes paid relative to last year, (ii) €8.7 million lower cash interest expenses as a result of last year’s refinancing of our Term Loans and (iii) a favorable trend in our working capital. Q3 2021 Adjusted Free Cash Flow of €111.6 million versus a negative €5.4 million in the same period a year ago as a result of phasing in the settlement of our annual cash taxes.
• FY 2021 outlook partially upgraded, expecting rebased^(a) Adjusted EBITDA^(b) to come in towards the upper end of the previously defined 1-2% range, while Adjusted EBITDA less property & equipment additions (previously referred to as Operating Free Cash Flow) is expected to be stable instead of the previously anticipated -1% decline. Reaffirming return to rebased^(a) revenue growth in 2021 and  healthy Adjusted Free Cash Flow^{(b, d)} between €420.0 and €440.0 million. With that, we now expect to be towards the mid-end of our 2018-2021 Adjusted EBITDA less property & equipment additions^{(b, c)} CAGR of between 6.5% to 8.0%.
• Delivering on our strategic roadmap: Non-binding term sheet signed with Fluvius about evolving our joint fixed network infrastructure in Flanders to “the data network of the future”, while having commenced a strategic review of our telecommunications tower business to enhance shareholder value. See 3.3 Subsequent events for additional disclosure.
• Continued execution against our shareholder remuneration policy and leverage framework with a gross intermediate dividend of €1.375 per share and a share buy-back program of up to €45.0 million, or up to 1.1 million shares outstanding. See 3.2 Shareholder remuneration for additional disclosure.

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