Q1 2025 Digi Communications NV Earnings Call
Yes.
[Company Representative] (Digi): present you our achievements. operationally this was the best, one of the best, quarters. we have grown, by far, and we have grown most in absolute terms, RGU-wise, particularly in Spain, but also with the help by our new markets like Portugal and, of course, not last, Romania. Without too much hesitation, let's go into the slides and follow up with the questions. Q1 revenues almost 20% up, to EUR 532 million in the quarter. RGU, as I was saying, it was an outstanding performance. We've added more than 1 million RGUs in comparison to Q4 last year, 4 million RGUs in comparison to Q1 2024. EBITDA EUR 140 million, excluding IFRS 16 numbers. Romania, as I said a bit earlier, grew by 7%. we grew across all our main segments. Mobile 13% growth to 6.8 million users.
Operationally this was.
The best one of the best quarters, we have grown.
Therefore, we.
We have we have grown most in absolute terms.
Andrea Weiss: Andrea Weiss.
Andrea Weiss: It's places, particularly in Spain, but also we were helped by.
Andrea Weiss: New markets like Portugal and of course, it's not lost to Romania, but results too much hesitation, let's go into the slide tend to follow up with the question.
Andrea Weiss: Our first quarter revenues, almost 90% up two.
Andrea Weiss: 552 million euros in the quarter.
Andrea Weiss: Do you as I was saying it was an outstanding performance, we've added to our more than a 1 million or did you use in comparison to Q4 last year, a 4 million did you use in comparison to.
Andrea Weiss: The first quarter of 2024, it would be down 140 million, excluding <unk> 16 numbers, Romania as I said a bit earlier grew by 7%. We grew across all our main segments mobile 50% grows to $6 8 million users.
Our pay TV are 3% of girls are reaching close to 6 million users and broadband forgive me to use us with 7% growth year on year.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Pay TV, 3% growth, reaching close to 6 million users, and broadband 5 million users with 7% growth year-on-year. Spain, again, a big congratulations, big thumbs up to our colleagues over there. We have surpassed two milestones: 6 million mobile users, in fact 6.2 million mobile users, and over 2 million, 2.1 million broadband users, 25% and 39% growth year-on-year, respectively. These are outstanding numbers. Once again, most of our success in this quarter, most of the result is really driven by our Spanish colleagues. We continue our strategy, we continue our operations with sustained growth across all markets, just like I mentioned a bit before, of course, backed by important, significant CapEx, aiming to expand the mobile and fixed network: mobile network in Romania, the fixed network in Spain, and then combined mobile and fixed in Portugal.
Andrea Weiss: They again are a big congratulations because it comes up to all colleagues.
Speaker Change: Oh, Dear Oh, we have surpassed the two milestones.
Speaker Change: 6 million mobile users, it's like $6 2 million mobile users and over 2 million $2 1 million broadband users 25, and 59% growth year on year, respectively. These oh, it's tempting numbers and to once again.
Speaker Change: Most of our.
Speaker Change: Our success in this quarter. Most of the result is really driven by Oh Spanish colleagues.
Speaker Change: But so we continue our strategy we continue operations.
Speaker Change: With sustained growth across all markets, just like I mentioned before of course, they can buy.
Speaker Change: Important significant topics aiming to expand the mobile and fixed network.
Speaker Change: <unk> mobile network in Romania, the fixed network in Spain, and then.
Speaker Change: Mobile and fixed in Portugal. So these are the main variations of this month and this month and as I said, we are very proud they pay off.
[Company Representative] (Digi): These are the main, directions of our investment, at this moment. As I said, we are very proud they pay off. Of course, last but not least on this page, we are very excited with the launches in Portugal and Belgium, or probably it's more appropriate to say we continue to be very busy with the launches in Portugal and Belgium. As you see, Portugal has surpassed 700,000 RGUs. Belgium, it's an early start. We have over 50,000 mobile users over there. Just very few words on the recent developments. As you see, we were pretty busy on the financing front at the beginning of the year or in the last 3 months. We have signed a couple of export credit facilities.
Speaker Change: And of course last but not least on this.
On this page are we are very excited with the launches in Portugal and Belgium.
Speaker Change: It's more appropriate to say we are very busy we continue to be very busy with new launches in Portugal, and the Belgium.
Speaker Change: And as you see our Portugal has surpassed them.
Speaker Change: 700000, or did you use in Belgium, it's a it's a it's another stuff.
Speaker Change: We have four what 50000.
Speaker Change: All users over there.
Oh, just very few words on the recent developments at <unk>.
Speaker Change: He will then be busy on the financing front at the beginning of the year or in the last three months or so we have signed a.
Speaker Change: Couple of for export credit facilities, we have financed also seen Romania with a new 200 million Euro loan for five years, and we have refinanced the entire portfolio all entitled Crane portfolio in Spain.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We have financed ourselves in Romania with a new EUR 200 million loan for 5 years. We have refinanced the entire portfolio, our entire credit portfolio in Spain with a EUR 275 million facility. Also, just a few days ago, sorry, yesterday we announced signing the EUR 84 million facility to finance the last tranche, the last one-third of Digi Andalusia development. It's a facility which is similar to Project Finance One, is very specific to that project. All in all, over EUR 600 million of funds raised. An important part of that was just for refinancing, and some of these funds are available for our further expansion. EUR 532 million in sales in the Q1. Romania, EUR 290 million, Spain, EUR 216 million, and Portugal, almost EUR 18 million. EBITDA in Romania, EUR 122 million, excluding IFRS 16 numbers.
Speaker Change: When we said 275 million are you really getting facility also just few days ago also yesterday, we announced the signing the $84 million Eudora facility to finance the last tranche of the last Oh once said, it's all for me.
Under Lucia.
Speaker Change: Hello.
Speaker Change: It's a it's a facility which is a.
Speaker Change: Similar to project finance one.
Speaker Change: It's very specific to their project. So so all in all over 600 million euros of pool of funds raised.
Speaker Change: And important part of this was just for refinancing and some of these funds are available for our further expansion.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: 572 million euros in savings.
Speaker Change: In the first quarter.
Speaker Change: Quarters.
Speaker Change: I mean, you're at 219 million Euro stay at 216 in Portugal, almost 18 million Euro.
Speaker Change: EBITDA, even Romania, Huntington and 72 million Euro excluding guide for 16 numbers. This.
This is a 40 this is all about 40% margin the very healthy steam a 16% margin in Portugal of course, it's a negative result, we are working hard to make sure that Oh, we come into Blake as quickly as possible.
[Company Representative] (Digi): This is over 40% margin, very healthy. Spain, a 16% margin. Portugal, of course, it's a negative result. We are working hard to make sure that we come into black as quickly as possible. We mentioned RGUs, 29 million. We'll come back to that as we continue the presentation. To go more deeper into our numbers, the Q1 EBITDA was EUR 140 million, excluding IFRS 16 numbers. With IFRS 16, the number stood at EUR 170 million, a 5% growth. Looking at revenues, Romania had an 11% increase, Spain had a 22% increase. Overall the group had a 90% increase. Italy was stagnating at EUR 8 million in the quarter, and Portugal generated almost EUR 18 million, as we mentioned before, but there's no comparison as last year we did not have these operations.
We continue to be very busy with the launches in Portugal, and the Belgium.
Speaker Change: Yeah. So we mentioned that you used $29 million will come back to that Oh, let's see.
Speaker Change: It is as we continue the presentation two to go more deeper into our numbers.
And as you see Portugal has sort of clusters, a 700000 to or did you use in Belgium, It's a it's a it's another stuff.
Speaker Change: So the first quarter EBITDA was 140 million excluding that for our 16 numbers. We've had put a 16th the number stood at 170 million euros.
We have over 50000.
But he was just over there.
Oh, just very few words on the recent developments as you see when they are busy busy on the financing front at the beginning of the year or in the last three months or so.
Speaker Change: 5% gross are looking at are really news, Romania had an 11% increase Spain had a 22% increase.
We have signed a.
Couple for export credit facilities, we have financed also seen Romania with a new 200 million you would alone for five years, and we have refinanced the entire portfolio all entitled pain portfolio in Spain.
Speaker Change: And Italy hits.
Speaker Change: You know what all the group had a 90% increase easily most amazing it's $8 million in the quarter.
Speaker Change: And the book to Bill generated almost 80 million as I mentioned before but there is no comparison as last year, we did not have these operations.
We said 275 million.
You really got facility also just few days ago also yesterday, we announced the signing of the $84 million Yodle facility to finance the last tranche of the last Oh once said it or did you under Lucia.
Speaker Change: You may notice that the Capex amounted 269 million euros D C as capex in our established markets Roma.
[Company Representative] (Digi): You may notice that CapEx amounted to EUR 169 million. This is CapEx in our established markets, Romania, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. This figure excludes Belgium. As we mentioned on our last investor call, we maintained the guidance of making EUR 750 million in CapEx for the full year. As always, our growth and our substantial growth is achieved through customer increase across all our markets. This is yeah, this is by far the most important driving factor. As I said at the beginning of the call, we are very proud of customer evolution. This was by far or this was the best quarter we had on a group level. This was also a good quarter in terms of financial performance.
Speaker Change: Romania, Spain.
Speaker Change: Portugal and Italy.
Philippines.
Speaker Change: D C. Good excludes a bedroom oh.
It's a it's a facility which is.
Speaker Change: As we mentioned on our last Oh Investor pool, we maintained we maintained the guidance of making 750 million euros in capex.
Similar to purchase finance one.
Is there any specific tool that project. So so all in all over 600 million euros of pool of funds raised.
And important part of this was just for refinancing and some of these funds are available for our water flood that expansion.
Speaker Change: For the full year.
Speaker Change: As all these oh gross and Oh substantial growth is achieved citadel.
Yeah.
So.
572 million euros it seems.
Speaker Change: Customer increase across all our markets and this is yeah. This is by far the most important.
In the first quarter.
I mean, you had 219 million euro stay at 216 in Portugal, almost 18 million Euro.
Speaker Change: Driving factor.
Speaker Change: So as I said at the beginning of the call. We are very proud of our customer evolution. This was by far Oh. This was the best Oh, well quarterly kit on a group level.
EBITDA in Romania, Huntington, and 72 million Euro excluding godfather 16 numbers. This.
This is a 40 this is all about 40% margin.
Speaker Change: And these disposals so.
Speaker Change: A good quarter.
Very healthy, Spain, a 16% margin in Portugal of course, it's a negative result, we are working hard to make sure that Oh, we come into Blake as quickly as possible.
Speaker Change: Quarter in terms of financial performance our.
Speaker Change: And you're growing there.
Speaker Change: Lastly, capex are being kept under control, so, it's 2% or 72% of sales significantly lower than in the previous quarters or yes.
[Company Representative] (Digi): revenue growing, very robustly, CapEx being kept under control, 32% of sales, significantly lower than in the previous quarters or years. Of course, with good margin and EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 of EUR 140 million. A few words on the RGUs. Romania reached 18.5 million from 17.2 million RGUs a year ago, so more than 1.2 million RGUs growth. Spain added more than 2 million RGUs from 7 million to 9 million. Of course, most of them coming from mobile. Portugal stays at 755,000 RGUs. Italy, 15% growth, 500 RGUs in comparison to 435,000 a year ago. All in all, a 17% growth for the group. mobile services, the biggest segment, amount to almost 14 million RGUs across four territories. broadband services, 7.2 million, and Pay TV, 6 million RGUs.
So when we mentioned about Jews St to $9 million will come back to that Oh.
Speaker Change: And of course with good margin and the EBITDA, excluding that sort of 16 with 140 million euros.
It is as we continue the presentation.
Two to go more deeper into our numbers.
So the first quarter EBITDA was $140 million, excluding that for our 16 numbers.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: A few words on the RG use.
Speaker Change: For Romania.
Speaker Change: <unk> reached 18, and a half a million from $17 2 million Oh did you use a a year ago, so more than more than one point.
For the 16th the number stood at 170 <unk>.
You rose.
A 5% gross are looking at our revenues, Romania had an 11% increase Spain had a 22% increase.
Speaker Change: Point 2 million Oh did you use a gross.
Speaker Change: <unk> seen it.
And Italy had.
Speaker Change: More than 2 million that you use from 7 million to 9 million.
Know what all the group had a 90% increase easily most amazing gets 8 million in the quarter and a book to bill generated almost $8 million as I mentioned before but there is no comparison as last year, we did not have these operations.
Speaker Change: Of course, most of them coming from mobile.
Speaker Change: Hi, Bob.
Speaker Change: Portugal, Oh stays at 755000 tonnes you use in Italy, a 15% growth 500 times, you use incorporation into Florida, and 55000 to a year ago, all in all a 17% growth.
You may notice that the Capex amounted 269 million euros. This is capex in our established markets.
Speaker Change: For the group.
Speaker Change: Well, what I said and as these are the biggest segment.
Speaker Change: <unk>, Spain.
Portugal and Italy.
Speaker Change: To almost $14 million or did you use across four territories.
Speaker Change: This figure excludes our Belgium.
Speaker Change: Broadband services to $7 2 million in pay TV, a $6 million Oh did you use of course, so far on previously cause they must be reporting just found market for me here.
Speaker Change: As we mentioned on our last Oh Investor call. We maintained the we maintained the guidance of Oh, making 750 million euros in capex for the full year.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Of course, so far or previously we were mostly reporting just one market, Romania, but since a couple of months we've started Pay TV services also in Spain. It's a good start. We've achieved 47,000 TV RGUs in Spain by the end of Q1. Just a couple of words on mobile portability. We continue outstanding performance both in Spain and in Romania. With Spain, gross portability at more than 340,000 users during Q1. Net portability 226,000 users and almost 60,000 gross portability in fixed services and over 53,000 net portability in the mobile services. Our gross portability in Romania amounted to 190,000 mobile users in the same period, Q1. All in all these are very good results for us but also for the markets that we operate in. Just very few words on the leverage.
Speaker Change: But since a couple of months, we started to take it. He says he's also in Spain.
Speaker Change: And he said good start we've achieved 47000.
Speaker Change: As all these oh growth and a substantial growth in.
Speaker Change: M T V. Our juice is paying by the end of the quarter.
Speaker Change: Is achieved through.
Speaker Change: Customer increase across all our markets.
Speaker Change: Just a couple of photos on our mobile portability, we continue Oh selling performance both in Spain and.
Speaker Change: And this is yeah. This is by far the most important.
Speaker Change: Driving trucks or so.
Speaker Change: In Romania.
Speaker Change: We spent in Spain with Oh gross profitability at a more than 340000 users during the first quarter.
Speaker Change: As I said at the beginning of the call. We are very proud of our customer evolution. This was by far the best Oh, well quarterly kit.
Speaker Change: Net portability, a 276000 users and almost 60000, let's portability and seeks to embassies and over 53000 portability portability in the mobile he said that he said Oh gosh portability in Romania amounted to 190000 to.
Speaker Change: On a group level.
Speaker Change: And these are this was also a good well.
Speaker Change: Quarter in terms of financial performance.
Speaker Change: They've been growing very robustly capex are being kept.
Speaker Change: Under control, so that 2% or 72% of sales are significantly lower than in the previous quarters or yes.
Speaker Change: By the users.
Speaker Change: In the same period first quarter, so all in all.
Speaker Change: And of course with.
Speaker Change: These are these are very good results.
Speaker Change: The margin and the EBITDA, excluding that 2016 with 140 million euros.
Speaker Change: Hospitals, so for the markets that we operate in.
Speaker Change: And just very few words on the leverage as we see we stabilize those shows that two and a half times the refinancing exercise is a help to us.
Speaker Change: So a.
Speaker Change: A few words on the RG use.
[Company Representative] (Digi): As we see, we stabilize ourselves at 2.5 times. The refinancing exercises helped us decrease the repayment efforts for 2025, 2026, and 2027. This year, we have a total of EUR 92 million to be paid. In 2026, it will be EUR 137 million, and in 2027, it will be EUR 222 million to pay. Of course, as most of you recall, we have refinanced, we have repaid the EUR 450 million bond last September, and that helped our maturity profile significantly. Gross debt is EUR 1.47 billion, net debt EUR 1.42 billion. Of course, the remaining EUR 400 million bond tranche remains outstanding for February 2028. There's plenty of room and time both to address this maturity as we go ahead. A couple of words on our focus for 2025.
Speaker Change: For Romania.
Speaker Change: At age 18.
Speaker Change: A decrease a debt repayment.
Speaker Change: The 18, and a half a million from $17 2 million <unk> a.
Speaker Change: Did they payment therefore for 2025 26 and 27, so this year.
Speaker Change: A year ago, so more than more than one.
Speaker Change: Point 2 million Oh did you use a gross.
Speaker Change: We have a total of 92 million cubic feet in 26, it would be 870 727 as it relates to 222.
Speaker Change: Steam added more than 2 million that you used from 7 million to 9 million.
Speaker Change: Of course.
Speaker Change: Most of them coming from.
Speaker Change: Million euros to pay of course, it's Oh and most of you recall, we have refinanced have repaid the 450 million Euro bond lost.
Speaker Change: Mobile.
Speaker Change: Portugal stays at 755000 tons of use in Italy, a 15% growth 500 times, you use incorporation into Florida to 55002, a year ago, all in all a 17% growth.
Speaker Change: Last September.
Speaker Change: And it helps our maturity profile significantly.
Speaker Change: For the group.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: Mobile services the biggest segment.
Speaker Change: Gross debt.
Speaker Change: 1.47 billion euros net debt to $1 42.
Speaker Change: Amount to almost $14 million or did you use across four territories.
Speaker Change: Yours.
Speaker Change: Broadband services to $7 2 million.
Speaker Change: Oh and of course, the remaining 400 million.
Speaker Change: And pay TV, <unk> 6 million or the use of course.
Speaker Change: He was born Crunch that remains outstanding for February 2028, and there's plenty of room in type a boost to address this maturity is Oh go ahead.
Speaker Change: So far all previously where they must be reporting just one market the mania, but.
Speaker Change: But since a couple of months, we expect it to basically he said it is also in Spain.
Speaker Change: And he said what stops we've achieved 47000.
Speaker Change: A couple of floors on Oh walk.
Speaker Change: T V. Our juice in Spain by the end of the quarter.
Speaker Change: For 2000 1985 in fact as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation.
Speaker Change: Just a couple of quarters on a mobile portability, we continue Oh selling performance both in Spain and.
[Company Representative] (Digi): In fact, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, not too many changes. We try to be consistent and to continue our operations. In Romania we consolidate our technical presence in the mobile segment, improving mobile networks, rolling out 5G services, and also connecting new customers. Of course, same continues in the fixed segment but with significantly less investments. Spain, again we continue to roll out the fixed networks. We continue adding customers both for our fixed and mobile services. We will focus in H2 on migrating from the MVNO model to an MNO model, along receiving the new frequencies from MasOrange, from the MasOrange joint venture.
Speaker Change: Not too many changes we try to be.
Speaker Change: And in Romania, we saw.
Speaker Change: Consistent and to continue operations in Romania, we consolidate all war.
Speaker Change: Paint and stain with Oh gross profitability, it's a modest 640000 users during the first quarter net portability.
Speaker Change: Oh.
Speaker Change: Technical presence.
Speaker Change: In the mobile segment.
Speaker Change: Improving the mobile networks rolling those five G. A set of issues and also connecting new customers.
Speaker Change: 226000 users and almost 60000, let's portability and seek 76 and over 57000.
Speaker Change: Of course, the same same same have that same continuous in the fixed segment, but we as a significant position investments.
Speaker Change: Portability portability in the mobile said that he says Oh gosh portability in Romania amounted to 190000 mobile users in the same period first quarter. So all in all.
Speaker Change: <unk> again, we continue to roll out the fixed networks, we continue adding customers.
Speaker Change: These are these are very good results.
Speaker Change: Both for fixed and mobile services and we will focus in the second part of the year when migrating from the Indian one module to and M. A normal though.
Speaker Change: Hospitals, so for the markets you operate in.
Speaker Change: And just very few words on the leverage as we see we stabilize those shows that two and a half times.
Speaker Change: Receiving the new frequencies from mass sporting Jay.
Speaker Change: The refinancing exercise.
Speaker Change: Hilltops.
Speaker Change: A decrease.
Speaker Change: From there from the muscled into joint ventures.
Speaker Change: The repayment.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: Did the repayment efforts for 2025, 26 and 27, so this year.
Speaker Change: Hum.
[Company Representative] (Digi): In Portugal, we will focus significantly to expand our network coverage and we focus on getting new customers on board. Also we will continue focusing on improving our, increasing our revenues and managing our costs to make sure that the red EBITDA becomes black towards the end of the year or beginning of next year. One or two words on the announcement of the upcoming general meeting of shareholders. The meeting was announced for 18 June, to be held in Amsterdam. We intend to approve the annual report. We intend to continue to extend the mandate of KPMG as the auditor. Of course we propose a dividend of RON 1.35 per share. It's an increase in comparison to last year. Last year we paid RON 1.25 per share.
Speaker Change: And in Portugal, we will focus.
Speaker Change: Oh, we have a total of 92 million to be paid and 26, it will be 857 and 57 it as it relates to 222 million.
Speaker Change: Significantly to.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: We will focus.
Speaker Change: Well, we would focus our to expand our network coverage and refocused on getting new customers on board, but also we will continue focusing on improving our water.
Speaker Change: Euros to pay off.
Speaker Change: Of course, it's Oh and most of you recall, we have refinanced have repaid the 450 million Euro bond.
Speaker Change: Increasing our revenues.
Speaker Change: Last September.
Speaker Change: And it helps our maturity profile significantly.
Speaker Change: And managing goalposts to make sure that the Red EBITDA.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: It becomes black tour.
Speaker Change: Gross debt of $1 47 billion euros net debt to $1 42 billion euros.
Speaker Change: Towards the end of the year or beginning of next year.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: One or two words on the announcement of the upcoming General meeting go for shareholders. The meeting was announced toward June 18th to be held in Amsterdam.
Speaker Change: Oh and of course, the remaining $400 million.
Speaker Change: Those bonds tranche remains outstanding for February 2028, and there's plenty of room inside a boost to our.
Speaker Change: This maturity is as they go ahead.
Speaker Change: We intend to approve the annual report we intend to continue to extend the mandate will keep mg as the auditor and of course, we.
Speaker Change: A couple of floors on Oh walk for.
Speaker Change: For 2000 1995 in fact as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation.
Speaker Change: Proposed a dividend of $1 75, but don't want their <expletive> Eaton.
Speaker Change: It's an increase in comparison to last year last year, we paid $1 25 foot on per share. So we keep our commitment to increase dividends since we listed the company back in 2017.
Speaker Change: Not too many changes we try to be.
Speaker Change: Consistent to continue operations.
Romania, we consolidate our war.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We keep our commitment to increase dividends, since we listed the company back in 2017. All in all I think it's a very simple agenda. I hope that most of you or all of you can either attend or express your vote towards this meeting. I believe this is it. This is the presentation. We welcome the questions. I think we'll start answering the questions in a minute or two. Yeah. We have our questions in the chat box. I will start going through them one by one as we speak. A question from Keval Khiroya. The first question. You have shown impressive subscriber growth in Spain but your EBITDA margin performance has been weaker. What explains the higher OpEx pressure in Q1 and how do we think about margins going forward?
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Oh technical presence.
Speaker Change: In the mobile segment.
Speaker Change: Oh, so well you know I think it's a very simple agenda and I hope for that to most of you. All of you can easily tend to express your vote towards this meeting.
Speaker Change: Improving the mobile networks Rolling golds five G. A set of issues and also connecting new customers of course. The same same same type of Sim continuous in the six Sigma, but squeezes are saying if you've got the list of investments.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Speaker Change: Things are again, we continue to roll out the fixed networks, we continue adding customers.
Speaker Change: I believe these she's eat this is the presentation.
Speaker Change: And we will Oh, we've been Oh.
Speaker Change: We will come to questions and I think we will start to answer the questions.
Speaker Change: Both for fixed and mobile services, and we will focus.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: The second part of the year or migrating from the in vivo models too.
Speaker Change: Yeah. So we have all the questions.
Speaker Change: And the jumbos or start to go and sit down and show them one by one as me as we speak.
Speaker Change: And M a normal though.
Speaker Change: Receiving the new frequencies from my Sporting Jay.
Speaker Change: So a question from Campbell.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Data from the Ah My footings joint venture.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: The first question.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: You have shown me, but I, just described but mostly in Spain, but EBITDA margin performance hasn't been a week or what explains the higher office finish it in Q1, and how do we think about margin gold margins going forward. Yeah. Thank you for the question I think so yeah. It's a good wanted to see if any question in absolute terms our EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: And in Portugal, we will focus.
Speaker Change: Significantly to them.
Speaker Change: Sure.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Yeah. Thank you for the question. I think, yeah, it's a good one. It's a valid question. In absolute terms our EBITDA has been pretty stable in Spain. There's a marginal decline or almost no decline in Q1 in comparison with Q4. Indeed, in terms of margin there's a slight decrease. It is driven by our changes to our pricing policy, the introduction of new products, the introduction of more affordable products to the customers. We expect this to be how shall I say, the bottom of the curve if I could say so. We expect a bounce back to the previous levels towards the end of the year. I hope this image is helpful to you.
Speaker Change: We will focus.
Speaker Change: Well, we would focus our to expand our network coverage and we are focused on.
Speaker Change: Has been pretty stable in Spain. So this marginal decline almost small decline.
Speaker Change: Getting new customers on board, but also we will continue focusing on improving our water.
Speaker Change: In Q1 in comparison with Q4, indeed in terms of margin there is a slight decrease it is.
Speaker Change: Increasing our revenues.
Speaker Change: And managing golf course to make sure that.
Speaker Change: It is driven by there our changes to our pricing policy, David election of new product.
Speaker Change: The Red EBITDA.
Speaker Change: It becomes break through.
Speaker Change: Towards the end of the year or beginning of next year.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: The introduction of more affordable products to their customers we.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: One or two once the announcement of the upcoming General meeting go for shareholders. The meeting was announced toward June 18 to be held in Amsterdam.
Speaker Change: We expect these to be how should I say the bottom of the curve. If I can I think we'll stay still and we expect our Oh.
Speaker Change: And bonds bank to the previously announced towards the end of the year.
Speaker Change: We intend to approve the annual report we intend to continue to extend the mandates will keep mg as the auditor and of course, we.
Speaker Change: This image is helpful to you and once again there soon.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Once again there's no other pressure to EBITDA or to our margin, apart from our changes to our sales policy. Once again they were expected and we address them as we go. Second question, from Keval. Some of your peers have been vocal on the need for in-market consolidation in Europe and in Spain. Do you think that the Spanish market needs consolidation and does Digi have a potential role to play here? Would you consider combining with another large operator in Spain? I would say we have the honor to operate in pretty competitive markets, both including Romania, including Italy, including Spain. Having said this, we have a strategy, our main strategy is related to organic growth. We are not aiming to be a consolidator in any of these markets.
Speaker Change: No all the pressure to give me a dollar or margin.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Speaker Change: Proposed a dividend of $1 55, I don't want to share.
Speaker Change: Bob Swan, our changes to the sales policy and yeah. Once again, they wed expect kitchen, I seem to where I'm hesitant go.
Speaker Change: It's an increase in comparison to last year last year, we paid $1 25 per share. So we keep our commitment to increase dividends since we listed the company they can 2017.
Speaker Change: And second question.
Speaker Change: I won't give up on some of your peers.
Speaker Change: I've been vocal on the need for in market consolidation in your home and you stand do seem to the Spanish market needs consolidation and that's D. G M. A potential at all to play here would you consider combining with another large operator in Spain.
Speaker Change: Oh, so all in all I think it's a very simple agenda and I'm hopeful that most of you. All of you can easily tend to express your vote towards at this meeting.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Speaker Change: I believe this is Pete this is the presentation.
Speaker Change: I would say we have them.
Speaker Change: Buena so operates in a pretty competitive market.
Speaker Change: And we will Oh, we've been Oh.
Speaker Change: We will come to questions and I think we'll start to answer the questions.
Speaker Change: Both including Romania, including Ethernet, including Spain.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Oh boy.
Speaker Change: He said these are we have a strategy in which all.
Speaker Change: Oh amazing energy, even making too many bills.
We were not looking for winter seeming to be a consolidator.
Speaker Change: In any of these markets, but if consolidation happens, we'll certainly taken all of them to work.
[Company Representative] (Digi): If consolidation happens, we'll certainly take note, and most likely we will just continue operations as we go. Once again, I think we all see the same indeed rhetoric. We see the same intention to consolidate. This is not something that we think is affecting us or we think that will impact our operations. Question from Darius. Investment returns. What ROI or payback period do you expect from investments made in 2023, 2024, and the ongoing key investments into infrastructure? I'm not sure we are that articulate on ROI and other metrics. If we speak about payback periods to our efforts, generally speaking, we are long-term oriented, and we believe we are also safe from this point of view. I think our horizon is 4, 5 years, and eventually plus.
Most likely we will just continue operations.
So once again.
Operator: presents you our achievements. Operationally, this was... Romania, as I said a bit earlier, grew by 7%. We grew across all our main segments. Mobile, 30% growth to 6.8 million users. Pay TV, 3% growth, reaching close to 6 million users. And broadband, 5 million users, with 7% growth year on year.
Speaker Change: I think we see we all see the same indeed, oh in Italy, we see the same intention to consolidate what's a this is not a.
Speaker Change: No. This is not something that we think is affecting also what we've seen with it with in fact all operations.
Speaker Change: Yeah. So we have all questions.
Speaker Change: In the jumbo Ochsner, our seltzer going around and show them one by one as we as we speak.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Question from values, our investment returns.
Campbell: So a question from Campbell in order.
Speaker Change: Out of life or payback period do you expect from investments made in 2020 city to silver in 'twenty, four and doing blankie investments into infrastructure.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: The first question.
Speaker Change: You have shown interest in sustainable sustainable EBITDA margin performance ending weaker what explains the handful discretion in Q1, and how do we think about margin gold margins going forward. Yeah. Thank you for the question I think yeah. It should take advantage of any question in absolute terms our EBITDA.
Yeah.
Speaker Change: I'm, not sure really where that articulates, our Ottawa and other metrics.
Speaker Change: If we speak about a payback periods.
Speaker Change: Two oh airports generally speaking we are.
Has been pretty stable in Spain. So this marginal decline almost not decline.
Speaker Change: Long term oriented.
Speaker Change: And we believe we're also safe from this point of view.
Speaker Change: In June one in comparison with Q4, indeed in terms of margins, there's a slight decrease it is.
Speaker Change: So I think Oh horizon, these oh, four or five years and eventually plus.
Speaker Change: It is driven by our changes to our pricing policies, David election of new products, namely.
Ganesh: A question from Ganesh from Barclays.
[Company Representative] (Digi): A question from Ganesh from Barclays. Congratulations on your results. Could you please provide some color on your subscriber trend in Belgium? Why is the portability to Digi coming down since launch? How is your mobile network development in Belgium progressing? How much population coverage do you target to achieve by 2025, 2026? Unfortunately, I will be, how shall I say, quite poor in information about Belgium on this call, just maybe like on the last call as well. Why so? It is our youngest operation. I think it deserves more time and more attention to get started. As I mentioned, we have gained 53,000 mobile users by the end of Q1. We are pretty happy with this number. We certainly see the trend continuing and growing, and we will certainly continue the effort.
Speaker Change: Oh congratulations on your results could you. Please provide some color on your subscriber trends in Belgium, what is the possibility to did you coming down.
Speaker Change: The promotional formed more affordable products to the customers we.
Speaker Change: We expect this to be partially safe the bolt on of course, if I can a cycle say, so and we expect.
Ganesh: Since launch.
Ganesh: As you all know by now for development in Belgium, progressing how much population coverage do you target to achieve by 2035 to <unk> 56.
Operator: Spain, again, big congratulations, big thumbs up to our colleagues over there. We have surpassed two milestones, 6 million mobile users, in fact, 6.2 million mobile users, and over 2.1 million broadband users, 25% and 39% growth year on year, respectively. These are outstanding numbers. And once again, most of our success in this quarter, most of the result is really driven by our Spanish colleagues. So we continue our strategy, we continue our operations with sustained growth across all markets, just like I mentioned a bit before, of course, backed by... mobile users over there. So all in all, over 600 million euros of funds raised, an important part of that was just for refinancing and some of these funds are available for our further expansion.
Speaker Change: Oh.
Speaker Change: Our bonds bank tone of previous levels towards the end of the year.
Ganesh: Unfortunately, I will be let's say oh quite toward information about Belgium on this call just maybe like when the law School Israel way. So it is all the youngest operation Ah I think it deserves more time and more attention.
Speaker Change: Hope this.
Speaker Change: Image is helpful to you and once again there soon.
Speaker Change: Now all the pressure to EBITDAR margin apart from our changes to the Tau Sanish policy.
Speaker Change: And yeah. Once again, they wed expect kitchen, Ashish could we entered into them as we go.
To get started.
Ganesh: We as a nation we have gains.
Ganesh: 53002 noble users by the end of first quarter.
Speaker Change: A second question.
Speaker Change: Give all on some of your peers has been vocal on the need for in market consolidation in Europe and in Spain dosing that is finished market needs consolidation and does the JV amputation little to play here would you consider combining police and other large operators in Spain.
Ganesh: Pretty happy with these numbers, we certainly are.
Ganesh: See the trends continuing getting going and we will certainly continue their food, but having said this is difficult for us to provide you a meaningful projections for CS coverage on about coverage or what are you implementing the portability, we're still very young.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Having said this, it is difficult for us to provide you meaningful projections for fixed coverage or mobile coverage, or even comment on the portability. We're still very young, and I don't think you could expect a big momentum or big customer growth in just in the first 3 or 4 months of operations. Thank you very much for the question. Question from Nora Nang. Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. I have 4 questions. Could you please share an update on the acquisition of Telecom Romania Mobile? Thank you, Nora. It's an ongoing process as we mentioned also last time on the call. This week, most yesterday, the competition authority did announce the remedies proposed by the buyers. The buyers being us and Vodafone.
Speaker Change: I would say we have them.
Speaker Change: Paula.
Speaker Change: <unk> operates in pretty competitive market.
Ganesh: And I don't think you could expect them.
Speaker Change: Both including Romania, including Ethernet, including Spain.
A big momentum no big Yeah.
Speaker Change: Paul.
Speaker Change: Having said this.
Ganesh: Big customer growth for.
Speaker Change: We have a strategy in which.
Ganesh: Just the first three or four months of operations.
Speaker Change: Our main strategy is related to organic growth.
Speaker Change: Well, thank you very much for the question.
Speaker Change: So we were not looking for we're not aiming to be a consolidator.
So a question from northern Huh.
Speaker Change: Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation I guess for questions.
Speaker Change: In any of these markets and if consolidation happens we'll certainly.
Speaker Change: Could you please share an update on the acquisition of Telekom, Romania mobile so thank you Laura.
Speaker Change: Taken all that into one.
Most likely we will just continue operations.
Speaker Change: In fact, it's an ongoing process as we mentioned also last time on the call. This week.
Speaker Change: Legal so once again.
Speaker Change: I think we see we all see the same indeed, oh in Italy, we see the same intention to consolidate.
Speaker Change: Yesterday, the competition authority did and.
Speaker Change: Oh the remit these proposed by the potential once a day, but the bias the bias being the us and Vodafone. These remedies are available publicly.
Speaker Change: But this is not new.
Speaker Change: <unk>. This is not something that we think is affecting vessel.
Speaker Change: Humanist when in fact of our operations.
[Company Representative] (Digi): These remedies are available publicly on the website of the competition authority. I think there's a public process to comment on these remedies by the beginning of June. I think, based on that, the competition authority will be in the position to make its final decision whether to approve or to approve with changes, this transaction or eventually accept or ask some other remedies. We sincerely hope that we are in the final stages of the process now. Second question. Could you please provide a breakdown of RGUs in Belgium? Oh, it's very simple. These are mobile RGUs. We have shared with you 53,000 mobile RGUs. Three. Is there one-off income taxes since it's pretty high this quarter? No. The income taxes are mostly affected by I leave this question to Dan.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: On the website of the competition authority I think there's a public process to comment on these remedies.
Question from values.
Speaker Change: Investment returns.
Speaker Change: Ottawa or payback periods. They expect from investments made in 2023 to <unk> 74, and don't whine key investments into infrastructure.
Speaker Change: By beginning of June.
Speaker Change: And I think based on that.
Speaker Change: The competition authority will be in a position to make its final decision whether to approve or to approve these changes. These transaction would eventually accept all asked some other remedies. So so we see Sydney pool that.
Speaker Change: Sure.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Speaker Change: I'm sorry.
Speaker Change: Our Hawaii all.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Speaker Change: If we speak about.
Speaker Change: It is.
Speaker Change: Oh, okay.
Speaker Change: Generally speaking we are.
Speaker Change: We're in the final stages over the process now.
Speaker Change: Nocturnal.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: My second question could you. Please provide some breakdown or did you use in there Jim is very simple.
Speaker Change: And we believe so.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: These these oh Gee is so we have shared with you a 53000 mobile Oh geez.
Speaker Change: All right.
Speaker Change: Four five years.
Speaker Change: And eventually plus.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change:
Oh, sorry is there a one off income tax season, since it's pretty high this quarter.
Speaker Change: A question from Ganesh from Barclays.
Speaker Change: Congratulations.
Sure. So on your results could you. Please provide some color on your subscriber trend in Belgium, why has the possibility to digi coming down.
Speaker Change: Oh well.
Speaker Change: The income taxes are mostly affected by it.
Speaker Change: Since launch.
Speaker Change: I'll leave this question to them, but I think the income taxes are more affected by deferred tax rather than actual cash stocks.
Speaker Change: How is your mobile network development in Belgium, progressing how much population coverage do target to achieve by 2025 2026.
[Company Representative] (Digi): I think the income taxes are more affected by deferred tax rather than actual cash tax, as we did not notice any significant changes in our current tax. In addition to that, it's sale of assets in Spain that drives increase in tax. When we say sale of assets in Spain we refer to the Macquarie transaction. The final question is do you confirm the CapEx guidance for 2025? Yes, we do. As we showed in our four markets in Q1, EBIT CapEx was EUR 169 million, basically in line with our expectation for EUR 750 million total CapEx. Question from Yorick Dupon. Could you give more information about the launch of Digi in Belgium? Is 53,000 users in line with the expectations? When do you expect to be profitable with the business in Belgium?
Operator: Um, so... 532 million euros in sales in the first quarter. we come into black as quickly as possible. So we mentioned RGUs, 29 million, we'll come back to that as we continue the presentation. To go more deeper into our numbers... So, the first quarter EBITDA was 140 million excluding IFRS 16 numbers, with IFRS 16 the numbers stood at 170 million euros, 5% growth. Looking at revenues, Romania had an 11% increase, Spain had a 22% increase, and Italy had, sorry, overall the group had a 90% increase. Italy was stagnating at 8 million in the quarter, and Portugal generated almost 18 million as we mentioned before, but there's no comparison as last year, we did not have these operations.
Speaker Change: As we did not notice any significant changes in our current stuff.
Speaker Change: Unfortunately, I will be should I say.
Speaker Change: Quite good information about Belgium on this call just maybe like on the last call as well why so it is OEM just operations.
Speaker Change: And in addition to that it's Oh sale for us to sustain that drives the.
Speaker Change: Increase in tax and when we say since they love us and sustained wafer to the Macquarie transaction.
Speaker Change: I think it deserves more time and more.
Speaker Change: Our attention to.
Speaker Change: To get started.
Speaker Change: And the final question is do you confirm the Capex guidance for 2025.
Speaker Change: We as I mentioned, we have gains of 53000 to a novel users by the end of first quarter, we are pretty happy with these numbers we certainly.
Speaker Change: Yes, we do so as we showed.
Speaker Change: You know for the markets in the first quarter.
Speaker Change: Our Capex was 169 million euro or basically in line with only six station for 750 million Euro total capex.
Speaker Change: See the trend continuing and growing and we will certainly continue therefore hitting said this is difficult for us to provide new meaningful projections are for <unk> coverage orebaugh coverage or orders or even comment on the profitability, we're still very young.
Speaker Change: So question from question from Yuri can do for them.
Speaker Change: Could you give more information about the launch of D. G. In Belgium is 53, K users inline with expectations. When do you expect to be profitable with the BTC in Belgium have you anything to say about the job costs. That's happened. This year did you Bill Jim.
Speaker Change: And I don't think you could expect.
Speaker Change: A big momentum will be good.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Big customer, but also.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Have you anything to say about the job cuts that happened this year at Digi Belgium? As I said, there's not very much to say. We had a launch. It's a successful technical launch. We offer commercially the services. We are very grateful to our first 53,000 users. We certainly hope that more users come to our network. In terms of the last questions on expectation about profitability, very difficult to say. Certainly not this year. Yeah, building an operator from scratch, launching an operator from 0 is an expensive business, which we risked to venture into. For the last part if I have to say anything about the job cuts that happened this year at Digi Belgium, again nothing in addition to what was discussed also on the previous quarter call.
Speaker Change: It just from the first three or four months of operations.
So.
Speaker Change: Well, thank you very much for the question.
Speaker Change: As I said, there's not very much to see we had the launch it's a successful technical lunch.
Nora Nagy: So a question from Nora Nagy.
Speaker Change: Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation at <unk> for questions.
Speaker Change: We offered commercially this Saturday.
Speaker Change: Could you please share an update on the acquisition of Telekom, Romania Mobile Russell. Thank you Laura.
Speaker Change: We're very grateful to our first 53000 users and we certainly hope that more users come to our network in terms of the last questions on the expectation of Volcker stability.
Speaker Change: In fact, it's an ongoing process as we mentioned also last time on the call.
Speaker Change: This week.
Speaker Change: Yesterday, the competition authority deals announced.
Speaker Change: Very difficult to say certainly not this year.
Speaker Change: And.
Operator: You may notice that CAPEX amounted to 169 million euros. This is CAPEX in our established markets, Romania, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, so this figure excludes Belgium. As we mentioned on our last investor call, we maintained the guidance of making 750 million euros in CAPEX for the full year. As always, our growth and our substantial growth is achieved through customer increase across all our markets, and this is by far the most important driving factor. So, as I said at the beginning of the call, we are very proud of customer evolution. This was the best quarter we had on a group level, and this was also a good quarter in terms of financial performance.
Speaker Change: The remedies proposed by the potential at ones that are backed by the buyers.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Building, an operator from scratch lunching it operation.
Speaker Change: But we'll take it from zero is a he's an extensive business, which we which we are at ease to venture into.
Speaker Change: As being the us and Vodafone these remedies are available publicly.
Speaker Change: On the website of the competition authority.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: Is this a public process to comment on these remedies bye.
Speaker Change: The last part.
Speaker Change: If I if I have to say anything about the job cost. This happens this year in Egypt, Belgium again nothing in addition to what was discussed also in the previous quarter.
Speaker Change: By beginning of June.
Speaker Change: And I think based on that.
Speaker Change: The competition authority will be in a position to make its final decision whether to approve or to approve these changes these transaction or eventually acceptable ask some other remedies. So so we sincerely hope that we.
Speaker Change: Quarter call.
Speaker Change: We are everyone in our operations we are adjusting our.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We are early on in our operations. We are adjusting our needs, our activities, our performance as we speak, as we go. Yeah, we just realized that the organization was set up maybe for a lot to be a larger one than necessary at this moment. We try to resize it and through to rescale it. Just as I mentioned it last time, we will do as many cuts or as many changes, personnel strategy, management-wise as we need to make sure that we have the most effective operations also in Belgium. Ultimately our goal is to provide good services, affordable services, to our users in all our markets, Belgium included. We'll do everything we can to achieve that. The question from Bojan Jurković, Spain. What was in particular attributable to the impressive RGU growth? Well, I stop here. It's a longer question.
Speaker Change: Who needs Oh activities out of four months as we speak as we go.
Speaker Change: We're in the final stages over the process now.
Speaker Change: And yeah, we just realized that Oh the organization.
Speaker Change: And a second question could you. Please provide a breakdown of RG use in Belgium or is very simple Oh. These these are mobile RG is so we have shared with you a 53000 mobile edginess.
Speaker Change: It was set up.
Speaker Change: Maybe for a lot to be a larger one that didnt necessarily at this moment and we try to we decided it didn't tool to escape it and just as I mentioned it last time.
Speaker Change: <unk> three is that a one off income taxes since it's pretty high this quarter.
Speaker Change: We will do as many costs as many changes.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Personnel strategy management twice as we need to make sure that we have the most effective operations will seem Belgium. Ultimately our goal is to provide good service is affordable services.
Speaker Change: No.
Speaker Change: The income taxes are mostly affected by.
Operator: Revenue growing very robustly, CAPEX being kept under control, 32% of sales significantly lower than in the previous quarters or years, and of course with good margin and EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 of 140 million euros. So, a few words on the RGUs. Romania reached 18.5 million from 17.2 million RGUs a year ago, so more than 1.2 million RGUs growth. Spain added more than 2 million RGUs from Portugal stays at 755,000 RGUs and Italy, 15% growth, 500 RGUs in comparison to 435,000 a year ago. All in all, 17% growth for the group. Mobile services, the biggest segment, amount to almost 14 million RGUs across four territories.
Speaker Change: I'll leave this question to them, but I think the income taxes are more affected by deferred tax rather than actual cash stops as.
Speaker Change: All users in all of our markets, Belgium included and we'll do everything weekend to achieve that.
Speaker Change: As we did not notice any significant changes in our current tox.
Speaker Change: And in addition to that it's Oh sale for us it sustain that drives the.
Oh, the question from Bouillon, Duke with each state.
Speaker Change: What was in particular, they did the book to the impressive <unk> growth.
Speaker Change: The increase in tax and when we say since halo by such as pain, we referred to the Macquarie transaction.
Speaker Change: Oh, well I stop here, it's a longer question look there's a very simple answer to that is Spain.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Look, there's a very simple answer to that. It's Spain. Spain all along. I mean, Spain accounts for, if I'm not wrong. Spain accounts for roughly two-thirds of the growth that we achieve. This is very good commercial momentum that we have. We have very good engagement with our customers. We are extremely happy about that. Would it be fair to assume that at least partially came at the expense of ARPO? I'm not so sure. I don't think so. In fact, we have an increase in growth. However, it's not our first quarter of growth. Certainly it helps, but I don't think it's the main reason. As always, our strategy, our results are based on a number of factors.
Speaker Change: Spain, all along I mean.
Speaker Change: And final question is do confirm the Capex guidance for 2025.
Speaker Change: Spain accounts for.
Speaker Change: If I'm not wrong.
Speaker Change: Yes, we do so as we showed.
Speaker Change: And if at all.
Speaker Change: Oh, Yes, just one second.
Speaker Change: In all four markets in the first quarter.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Well so.
Speaker Change: Capex was 169 million euro or basically in line with only six station for 750 million Euro total capex.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: He is.
Speaker Change: Japan of College sports.
Speaker Change: Roughly two status with the goals that we achieved this is.
Yuri Dupont: So question from question from Yuri Dupont.
Speaker Change: Very good commercial momentum that we have we have very good engagement with our customers.
Yuri Dupont: Could you give me more information about the launch of DG in Belgium is 53 can you use it in line with expectations. When do you expect to be profitable with the BDC in Belgium have you anything to say about the job cuts that happened this year or did you Belgium.
Speaker Change: And we're extremely happy about that.
Speaker Change: Would it be fair to assume that at least partially came at the expense of our pool.
Speaker Change: Not so sure we I don't think so in fact, we are all water well we have.
Yuri Dupont: So.
Yuri Dupont: As I said, there's not very much to say we had the launch us. It's a successful technical lunch, we offered commercially the synergies we're very grateful to our first 53000, <unk> and recently <unk>.
Speaker Change: The slight increase in our we have an increasing gross Hollywood, it's not our first quarter of goals certainly east coast, but I don't think it's a it's the main reason is all these oh strategy. Our results are based on a number.
Operator: Broadband services, 7.2 million, and pay TV, 6 million RGUs. Of course, so far or previously, we were mostly reporting just one market, Romania, but since a couple of months, we started pay TV services also in Spain, and it's a good start. We've achieved 47,000 TV RGUs in Spain by the end of the quarter.
Yuri Dupont: More users come to our network in terms of the last questions on the expectation of all profitability.
Speaker Change: Factors, a quantity of saturday's, Oh goodness and Oh.
[Company Representative] (Digi): quality of service, fairness, and the way we interact with our customers, but also price, being few of them. Where do you see Spanish ARPO going forward? Well, we have changed our offers recently. We have seen existing customers changing packages, opting for more affordable ones. We see new customers coming. We don't think there'll be significant changes in the ARPOs going forward. Still, I would look at this caution with caution. This is something that we'll have to look for, I think, for the rest of the year. The next question is on general finance. Interest expense. What was the main reason for such a rise in interest expense in Q1?
Yuri Dupont: Very difficult to say certainly not this year.
Yuri Dupont: And.
Operator: Just a couple of words on mobile portability. We continue outstanding performance both in Spain and in Romania. In Spain, with gross portability at more than 340,000 users during the first quarter, net portability 226,000 users and almost 60,000 gross portability in six services and over 53,000 net portability in the mobile services. Our gross portability in Romania amounted to 190,000 mobile users in the same period, first quarter. So, these are very good results for us but also for the markets that we operate in.
Speaker Change: The way, we interact with our customers, but also price.
Yuri Dupont: Yeah.
Yuri Dupont: Building, an operator from scratch launching in operation.
Speaker Change: Being a few of them.
Yuri Dupont: Operator from zero is a is an expensive business, which we which we risked store venture into.
Speaker Change: When do you see Spanish ARPA going forward.
Speaker Change: Hmm.
Speaker Change: We.
Speaker Change: We have changed at all for us.
Yuri Dupont: And.
Yuri Dupont: The last part.
Yuri Dupont: If I have to say anything about the job cost that happens this year in Egypt, Belgium again nothing in addition to what was discussed also on the previous <unk>.
Speaker Change: Recently, we have seen existing customers changing packages opting for more affordable ones, we see new customers coming Oh, we don't see we don't think there'll be significant changes in the offers going forward with steel.
Yuri Dupont: Quarter call.
Yuri Dupont: We are early on in our operations, we are adjusting our needs.
Yuri Dupont: Active disease outperformance as we speak as we go and.
Speaker Change: I would I would look at the Scotia with Ocean. This is something that this is something that we'll have to.
Speaker Change: Yeah, we just realized that for.
Speaker Change: I'm not sure I think for the rest of the year.
Yuri Dupont: The organization.
Yuri Dupont: It was set up.
Operator: Just a very few words on the leverage. As we see we've stabilised ourselves at 2.5 times. The refinancing exercises helped us decrease the repayment efforts for 2025, 2026 and 2027. So this year. we have a total of 92 million Euros to be paid in 26 it will be 137 and in 27 it has 322 million Euros to pay of course as most of you recall we have refinanced, we have repaid the 450 million Euro bond last September and that helped our maturity profile significantly. 1.47 billion euros net debt 1.42 billion euros And of course, the remaining 400 million euro bond crunch remains outstanding for February 2028, and the spread of Rouman Tide goes to address this maturity as we go ahead.
Yuri Dupont: Maybe for a lot to be a larger while the niches that at this moment and we try to we decided since tool to escape it and just as I mentioned it last time.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Our next question is one general finance interest expense what was the main reason for such a rise in either expense interest expense in the first quarter.
Yuri Dupont: We will do as many Costco as many changes.
Speaker Change: I think the main reason is the fact that we recycled and very cheap bond.
Yuri Dupont: Personnel strategy management twice as we need to make sure that we have the most effective operations Holcim, Belgium ultimately our goal is to provide good services affordable services.
[Company Representative] (Digi): I think the main reason is the fact that we recycled a very cheap bond by repaying it partially with refinanced funds, partially with, owned funds. However, we also borrowed, extra funds towards the end of the year. All new facilities, come at least at 2.5% higher cost. By the way, by saying this, I think we are efficient for operator of our size and operators of our standing in terms of interest cost. On the other hand, it's just that we were very lucky and we had a very cheap facility, in place originating from pre-COVID, era. Yeah, we pay higher interest, all in all, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker Change: But it being either partially refinanced fonts, partially with our own funds.
Speaker Change: However, we will also go towards extra upfronts towards the end of the year and all of your facilities.
Yuri Dupont: All users in all of our markets, Belgium included and we'll do everything we can tool to achieve that.
Speaker Change: Come at least it's two 2.5% higher cost so it's really.
Speaker Change: Oh the question Trung Bouillon June of each state.
Speaker Change: And by the way by saying this I think we are efficient for operators of all sizes. Operator, So first of all standing in terms of interest cost what on the other hand, it's just the three with very Lucky and we hit the very cheap facility in place what did you Nathan from people read.
Yuri Dupont: What was in particular attributable to the impressive <unk> growth.
Yuri Dupont: Oh, well I stop here, it's a longer question look there's a very simple answer to that is Spain.
Yuri Dupont: Spain, all along I mean.
Yuri Dupont: Spain accounts for.
Yuri Dupont: If a lot Jerome.
Yuri Dupont: And if at all.
Speaker Change: So yeah, we pay higher interest, but all in all there's nothing wrong with it.
Yuri Dupont: Oh, Yes, just one second.
Yuri Dupont: Hello.
Yuri Dupont: So.
Speaker Change: I think the general context is that it.
[Company Representative] (Digi): I think, the general context is that, as, you will also appreciate, we all believe that we are in a declining interest market. We don't expect this to worsen or to affect us significantly, going forward. I hope it's helpful. The third question from Bojan. Belgium. When do you plan to disclose operational KPIs? Does the CapEx envelope of EUR 750 million include Belgium? Belgium is at this moment a joint venture between, roughly 50/50, joint venture between us and our partner CityMesh, our Belgian partner. As long as this company remains as a joint venture, we will not consolidate these results and there will be no more disclosure on the operational KPIs. If this situation changes, of course, this discussion will also change. The third question. Does the CapEx of EUR 750 include also Belgium?
Yuri Dupont: Yeah.
Speaker Change: As you will also appreciate we won't be needed as we are in a declining interest market. So we don't expect this to.
Yuri Dupont: Is the <unk> sport of rocket two set of some of the goals that we achieved this is.
Speaker Change: Tourism or to affect us finish complete going forward I hope it's helpful and it's.
Yuri Dupont: Very good commercial momentum that we have we have very good engagement with our customers and we are extremely happy about that.
Operator: A couple of words on our focus for 2025. In fact, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, not too many changes. We try to be consistent and to continue our operations. In Romania, we consolidate our technical presence in the mobile segment, improving mobile networks, rolling out 5G services, and also connecting new customers. Of course, the same continues in the fixed segment, but with significantly less investments.
Speaker Change: Separate question from a boy in Belgium, when do you plan to disclose operational keep your eyes. That's the Capex envelope of Euro 750 million include bedroom.
Speaker Change: Would it be fair to assume that at least partially came at the expense of Opco.
Speaker Change: I'm not so sure we no I don't think so in fact, we are our.
Oh, So Belgium is at this moment.
Speaker Change: The joint venture between roughly a 50 50 joint venture between Us and our partner Seta mesh a Belgian partners.
Speaker Change: We have.
Speaker Change: A slight increase in the eight we have an increasing growth. However is not our first quarter of goals certainly it helps but I don't think it's a it's the main reason is the all these oh strategy. Our results are based on.
Speaker Change: And as long as Oh.
Speaker Change: As long as they did this company remains as a joint venture we do not consolidate these results and there'll be no more disclosure on the operational keep your eyes easy since easy situation changes of course. These discussions will also change.
Speaker Change: A number of factors.
Speaker Change: Quality of Saturday's.
Operator: Thank you for watching! both for our fixed and mobile services, and we will focus in the second part of the year on migrating from the MDNO model to an MNO model, along receiving the new frequencies from the mass orange joint venture.
Speaker Change: Fairness and.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: The way, we interact with our customers, but also price.
Speaker Change: And the second question does the Capex include authentic tasty include also Belgium, and it seemed velocities yes.
Speaker Change: Being a few of them.
Speaker Change: Where do you see Spanish ARPA going forward.
[Company Representative] (Digi): The simple answer is yes. A follow-up from Nora. How big was the CapEx in Belgium? Thank you. Well, just as I mentioned, we are not disclosing the CapEx and the numbers for Belgium. Hopefully we will speak this sometime later. Question from Vlad Podya. Hi. Thank you for the presentation. Can you provide more details on what cost the 49% year on year and 2.6 times quarter on quarter increase in interest expense, especially considering the overall decline in your report over the past quarters and the fact that most of the debt consists of floating interest loans? I think we addressed that. We used to have a very cheap bond which was fixed. By very cheap, I mean it was 2.5% all-in cost. We can't borrow today at those rates anymore.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: That's what it was for neuro.
Speaker Change: Well.
Speaker Change: How big was the Capex in there Jim.
Speaker Change: We.
Speaker Change: We have changed our offers.
Speaker Change: Well just as I mentioned, we're not disclosing.
Speaker Change: Recently, we have seen <unk>.
Speaker Change: Disclosing the capex and the numbers for Belgium.
Operator: Um And in Portugal, we will focus significantly to... We will focus we will focus to expand our network coverage and we will focus on getting new customers on board but also we will continue focusing on improving our, increasing our revenues and managing our costs to make sure that the red EBITDA becomes black towards the end of the year or beginning of next year.
Speaker Change: Existing customers changing packages opting for more affordable ones, we see new customers coming.
Speaker Change: Yeah, hopefully we'll speak these sometime later.
Speaker Change: We don't see we don't think there'll be changes.
Speaker Change: Question from Blackboard them.
Speaker Change: Oh, hi, Thank you for the presentation can you provide more details on what caused the 49% year on year and two six times.
Speaker Change: Moving forward with steel.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Ocean.
Speaker Change: It is astonishing.
Speaker Change: The quarterly increase in interest expense, especially considering the overall decline you would it work over the past quarters and the fact that most of the debt consists of floating rate loans. So I think we addressed that.
Speaker Change: These changes will have to.
Speaker Change: Increased.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: He is.
Speaker Change: We used to have a very cheap bond, which was let's see my very cheap I mean, it was two 5% all in cost and yeah. We we can't borrow today at those rates anymore.
Speaker Change: Finance.
Speaker Change: Good morning.
Speaker Change: That makes sense.
Speaker Change: In the first.
Speaker Change: I think the reason he's effectively recycled.
Speaker Change:
Operator: So long.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: A question from Bill collection, Borski, what level of Capex and EBITDA do you expect in 2025, so for Capex. We mentioned, we maintain our guidance of 760 million Euro.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Operator: One or two words on the announcement of the upcoming general meeting of shareholders. The meeting was announced for June 18 to be held in Amsterdam. We intend to approve the annual report. We intend to continue to extend the mandate of KPMG as the auditor, and of course we propose a dividend of 1.35 RON per share. It's an increase in comparison to last year, last year we paid 1.25 RON per share, so we keep our commitment to increase dividends since we listed the company back in 2017.
[Company Representative] (Digi): A question from Piotr Raciborski. What level of CapEx in EBITDA do you expect in 2025? CapEx we mentioned, we maintain our guidance of EUR 750 million. For EBITDA, overall year-on-year, we expect a slight increase in the low-level digits in comparison to 2024. When do you expect Portugal to reach break-even on EBITDA level? Well, it's too early to assume. We will do our best that this happens quickly or relatively quickly over the next one or two years. A question from Anton. Can you please comment on your commercial momentum in Portugal? How many of the mobile RGUs ads were on NOWO versus the newly launched Digi brand? I think, you have now the Q4 report and you have also the Q1 report. You already have the dynamic, the commercial dynamic, in particular.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Partially we use our own funds.
Speaker Change: However, we will also bottles.
Speaker Change: The upfront.
Speaker Change: Towards the end of the year.
Speaker Change: EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Overall year on year.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Two.
Speaker Change: We expect a slight increase in the in the low <unk>.
Speaker Change: So in a 5% or.
Speaker Change: So Q3.
Speaker Change: The low level.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: I think we are efficient.
Speaker Change: In comparison to 2024.
Speaker Change: For opening remarks.
Speaker Change: When do you expect Portugal to reach breakeven on EBITDA level well.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: So of course, they need in terms of intercourse.
Speaker Change: Got it.
Speaker Change: It's it's too early to assume we will do all of this that this happens.
Speaker Change: You just said.
Speaker Change: Very lucky in that.
Speaker Change: HSBC.
Speaker Change: Weekly whatever activity quickly over the next one or two years.
Speaker Change: In places where we can.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: So yes.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: But overall, there's nothing wrong with it.
A question from Tom can.
Operator: So, all in all, I think it's a very simple agenda, and I hope that most of you, all of you can either attend or express your vote towards this meeting.
Speaker Change: I think.
Speaker Change: Can you please comment on your commercial momentum in Portugal.
Speaker Change: Thanks, Steve.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: The mobile app to use its web on a normal versus the newly launched Digi brand. So I think you have now the Q4 report and you have also the Q1 report.
Speaker Change: Most operations will begin.
Speaker Change: The planning for this market.
But we don't expect so.
Speaker Change: So all those.
Operator: I believe this is it, this is the presentation, and we welcome the questions, and I think we'll start answering the questions in a minute or two. Yeah, so we have our questions in the chat box. I will start going through them one by one as we speak.
Speaker Change: Significantly.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: You already have the dynamic the commercial dynamic Oh in particular during the first quarter, we added 67.
Speaker Change: I hope it's helpful.
Speaker Change: I had a question.
Speaker Change: David when you Patrick Scholes operational Kpis.
[Company Representative] (Digi): During Q1, we added 67,000 mobile users. We've added 10,000 fixed broadband users, 4,000 Pay TV users. All these users were added on Digi's networks and not on NOWO network as we are not active on the commercially on the NOWO network. A question from Dalius. How large was maintenance CapEx for in 2024 and how much should we expect for 2025? We're not really splitting our CapEx by growth and maintenance. I'd expect that our maintenance CapEx is in the area of EUR 150 million. How are you feeling about the Belgian launch? Is 53,000 RGUs satisfying start or not? It is very satisfying.
Speaker Change: That's the Capex envelope.
<unk> thousand mobile users. We've added 10000 fixed broadband users 4000 pay TV 4000, I'm thinking to users.
Speaker Change: $160 million.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh absolutely.
Speaker Change: At this moment.
Speaker Change: All these users are added on digital networks and not on the mobile network as we S. V. I don't think if one wanted to commercially on de Novo network.
Speaker Change: Between.
Operator: So a question from Keval Hiroya. The first question. You have shown impressive subscriber growth in Spain, but your EBITDA margin performance has been weaker. What explains the higher optics pressure in Q1, and how do we think about margin going forward? Thank you for the question. I think it's a good one, it's a valid question. In absolute terms, our EBITDA has been pretty stable in Spain, so there's a marginal decline, almost no decline in Q1 in comparison with Q4. Indeed, in terms of margin, there's a slight decrease.
Speaker Change: And the joint venture between <unk> and <unk>.
Speaker Change: She can mesh.
Speaker Change: All right.
Speaker Change: And as long as Oh.
Speaker Change: So question from values, although it was maintenance capex for 2024, and how much should we expect for 2055.
Speaker Change: Okay.
As long as these.
Speaker Change: These companies.
Speaker Change: The joint venture.
Speaker Change: Consolidated results.
Speaker Change: Not really Oh.
Speaker Change: So just on the operational.
Speaker Change: Speaking, all capex by growth and maintenance.
Speaker Change: Inflation changes of course these festivals of change.
Speaker Change: We expect that our maintenance Capex is in the area of.
Speaker Change: And the second question desktop.
Speaker Change: $150 million.
Speaker Change: Seven.
Speaker Change: Oh, how are you feeling about the Belgian launch is 53000 tons you use satisfying start going up it is very satisfying.
Speaker Change: In global specialty.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Operator: It is... It is driven by our changes to our pricing policy, the introduction of new products, the introduction of more affordable products to the customers. We expect this to be, how should I say, the bottom of the curve, if I could say so. We expect a bounce back to the previous levels towards the end of the year. I hope this image is helpful to you and once again, there's no other pressure to leave it out or margin apart from our changes to our sales policy. Once again, they were expected and I think we addressed them as we go.
Speaker Change: How big was the competency there Jim Thank you.
Speaker Change: And but as I I, just repeat what I said at the very beginning of the call, both Portugal and Belgium.
Speaker Change: Well just as an.
[Company Representative] (Digi): But as I just repeat what I said at the very beginning of the call, both Portugal and Belgium take a lot of work from our colleagues in this that are based in these markets. We try to support them as much as we can. We keep our fingers crossed. There's just plenty lots and plenty of work. If you ask us, we feel very good about this number. It's a good start and we are looking forward for, of course, much better results in the future. Another question from Dalius. What is your revenue EBITDA outlook for 2025 and what is your longer-term growth outlook? It's difficult for me to really speak about long-term growth outlook, especially with two new markets being in incipient stages. I refer here to Portugal and Belgium.
Speaker Change: Now disclosing.
Speaker Change: And the Capex and the numbers.
Speaker Change: Belgium.
Speaker Change: Take a lot of water from our colleagues in.
Speaker Change: Hopefully it.
Speaker Change: In these that are that are based in these markets.
Speaker Change: With this.
Speaker Change: For some time.
Speaker Change: And we try to support them as much as they can we keep our fingers crossed that the just plain lots.
Speaker Change: Chris Russell.
Speaker Change: Hi, Thank you for participation can you provide more detail.
Speaker Change: Lots of plenty of work. So so if you ask us we feel very good about this number is a good start.
Speaker Change: Post the 49% year on year and two six times.
Speaker Change: Quarter.
Speaker Change: We are looking for but for of course, it's much better results in the future.
Speaker Change: Expenses, especially because.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Over the past quarter.
Speaker Change: Most of the differences.
Speaker Change: So another question from Daniel.
Speaker Change: So I think that we have.
Speaker Change: What is you would have in your EBITDA outlook for 2025, and what is your longer term growth outlook.
Speaker Change: So we use cash.
Speaker Change: Right.
Speaker Change: Which was affected by.
Speaker Change: <unk> was two 5% for Ingalls.
Speaker Change: It's difficult for me to really speak about long term growth solid look, especially with the.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: We can.
Speaker Change: Two new markets being in incipient stages.
Speaker Change: Adobe's anymore.
Speaker Change: Oh yeah.
Operator: Some of your peers have been vocal on the need for in market consolidation in Europe and in Spain. Do you think that the Spanish market needs consolidation? Does Digi have a potential role to play here? Would you consider combining with another large operator in Spain? I would say that we have the honor to operate in pretty competitive markets both including Romania, including Italy, including Spain. Having said this, we have a strategy which our main strategy is related to organic growth. So we are not looking for, we are not aiming to be a consolidator in any of these markets.
Speaker Change: A question from vegetables.
Speaker Change: Here to Portugal, and Belgium, but speaking of 2025 I've already mentioned earlier.
Speaker Change: What are the EBITDA <unk> expecting 2024.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Speaking of 2025, I've already mentioned earlier a low single-digit level increase in terms of EBITDA and a low double-digit increase in terms of revenues. That's our expectation for 2025. A question from Jan Reichenbach. Hi. Can you please provide an update on your liquidity profile undrawn RCF and all other available undrawn, committed facilities? Jan, I'm not sure I don't have these numbers handy, but at this moment, especially due to lots of refinancings that we did in the last 3 months, as I already mentioned, I'd say we have between EUR 200 and 250 million undrawn facilities, as we speak. Which I hope is helpful to anyone looking. A question from Simon.
Speaker Change: So for Capex, we mentioned maintain.
Speaker Change: Maintaining an hour.
Speaker Change: The low level.
Speaker Change: Oh God.
Speaker Change: Hum.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Speaker Change: Oh Sega.
Speaker Change: In Q4.
Speaker Change: The increase Oh, sorry, low single digits.
Speaker Change: EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: An increase in terms of EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Sure.
Speaker Change: Next slide please.
Speaker Change: And a low double digit increase in terms of revenues, that's our expectation for 2025.
Speaker Change: No.
Speaker Change: And in the low level.
Speaker Change: In comparison to 2024.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: When do you support.
Giovanni: So a question from Giovanni.
Speaker Change: Breakeven EBITDA levels.
Speaker Change: But I can Buck hi can you. Please provide an update on your liquidity profile on Roman our CFO and all other available undrawn committed facilities.
Speaker Change: Alright.
Speaker Change: It's too early to students, we will do more business.
Speaker Change: This campaign.
Speaker Change: Quickly relatively quickly.
Speaker Change: The next one or two years.
Giovanni: Giovanni I'm not sure I.
Speaker Change: Question from Anton.
Giovanni: I don't have these numbers handy, but does this moment, especially due to.
Speaker Change: Please go ahead.
Operator: But if consolidation happens, we will certainly take note and most likely we will just continue our operations as we go. So once again, I think we all see the same, indeed the rhetoric, we see the same intention to consolidate, but this is not something that we think is affecting us or we think that will affect our operations.
Speaker Change: Tony.
No.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Giovanni: Lots of other financings that we did in the last eight months is that would've been mentioned.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Frank.
Giovanni: I'd say we have been.
Speaker Change: The Q4.
Giovanni: Between 210 to one and a 50 million undrawn facilities.
Speaker Change: Also the Q1 report.
Speaker Change: Don't know.
Speaker Change: Dynamic.
Giovanni: As we speak.
Giovanni: So which is which I hope is helpful to anyone looking.
Speaker Change: In particular during the first quarter.
Speaker Change: 67.
Speaker Change: Thousands.
Giovanni: To anyone looking.
Speaker Change: And we made it.
Giovanni: Oh a question from Simon. Please can you confirm the current size of your proprietary fixed network in Belgium, and the current state of negotiations for fixed wholesale access from other parties. What is your plan B. If you kind of degree of systems with other operators.
Speaker Change: So enrollment users.
Speaker Change: Okay.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Please, can you confirm the current size of your proprietary fixed network in Belgium and the current state of negotiations for fixed wholesale access from other parties? What is your plan B if you cannot agree access terms with the other operators? Starting from the end, the plan B is actually plan A, which is always to build. This is our main plan and this is something we are doing at this moment. We will continue doing. In terms of announcing the size of the network, I think we are pretty much at the beginning and there's very little to say about. A question from BSERUI. Have there been some media reports on unpaid suppliers in Belgium after the year results? You said there were no liquidity issues, but the stories persist. Any update on that front?
Operator: A question from Darius. Investment returns, what... on I'm not sure we are that articulate on ROI and other metrics, but if we speak about payback periods to our efforts, generally speaking, we are long-term oriented and we believe we are also safe from this point of view.
Speaker Change: All these years.
Speaker Change: <unk> networks and not on mobile networks as we are.
Speaker Change: S E T.
Speaker Change: Congratulations.
Speaker Change: Great.
Starting from the end of the plan B is to build the plumbing is actually planned E, which is always to build so this is oh, our main plant and this is something we do we.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: So that was maintenance capex.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: How much should be two.
Speaker Change: 2055.
Giovanni: We are doing at this moment, we will continue doing in terms of announcing the size of the network.
Speaker Change: Not really.
Speaker Change: Splitting all capex by growth.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Giovanni: I think we are.
Speaker Change: I had expected.
Giovanni: Pretty much at the beginning and there's very little to say about.
Speaker Change: The topics.
Speaker Change: 160 million Euro.
Speaker Change: How are you feeling about the Biogen launch is 53000 that you use satisfying start or not it is very satisfying.
Operator: So, I think our horizon is 4-5 years and eventually plus.
Giovanni: So a patient from.
Speaker Change: B S.
Giovanni:
Giovanni: Have there been.
Speaker Change: And.
Giovanni: Some media reports on a day supply of some bedroom. After the year results. You said there were no liquidity issues.
Speaker Change: But as.
Speaker Change: I'll just repeat what I said at the very beginning of the call.
Operator: A question from Ganesh from Barclays. Um Congratulations on your results. Could you please provide some color on your subscriber trend in Belgium? Why is the portability to Digicoming down since launch? How is your mobile network development in Belgium progressing? How much population coverage do you target to achieve by 2025, 2026?
Speaker Change: Both Portugal, and Belgium, and it'll take a lot of work from our colleagues.
Giovanni: But the stories persist any update on that front well I just referred to the question do you want us to be terribly here with.
Speaker Change: In these that's a database in these markets and we try to support them as much as we can we keep our fingers crossed.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Well, I just refer to the question Giovanni asked a bit earlier. With over EUR 200 million of undrawn facilities, certainly there are no liquidity issues. Having said this, I don't think this discussion should go into an operational update on Belgium. I think we mentioned this also last time and we repeat this time. I hope it's okay for you and for the rest of the audience. A question from Joe House. Can you share your views on how entrance in both Portugal and Belgium has been received by customers? Are you gaining customers in line with expectations? Well, I think the best result is really shown through the numbers, reaching between 80,000 and 90,000 RGUs in Q1 in Portugal is certainly both helpful and satisfying. Again, we are grateful to our customers.
Giovanni: Over 200 million euros of Undrawn facilities, certainly there are no liquidity issues.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Giovanni: But having said this I don't see these discussion should go into an operational update.
Speaker Change: Lots have been plenty of work. So so if you ask us we feel very good about this number is a good start.
Operator: Unfortunately, I will be, shall I say, quite poor in information about Belgium on this call, just maybe like on the last call as well. Why so? It is our youngest operation. I think it deserves more time and more attention to get started. We, as I mentioned, we have gained 53,000 mobile users by the end of first quarter. We are pretty happy with this number. We certainly see the trend continuing and growing, and we will certainly continue the effort. Having said this, it is difficult for us to provide you meaningful projections for fixed coverage or mobile coverage or even comment on the portability.
Giovanni: Belgium, I think we mentioned this also last time and would it be this time, so I hope it's I hope it's okay for you and for the rest of the audience.
Speaker Change: We are looking for work for of course, much better results in the future.
Speaker Change: So another question from Daniel.
Daniel: What is your revenue EBITDA outlook for 2025, and what is your longer term growth outlook.
Speaker Change: A question from.
Joe House: Joe House.
Joe House: Can you share your views on all the interest in both Portugal, and Belgium has been received by customers are you gaining customers in line with expectations, but I think the best result is really shown through the numbers.
Daniel: It's difficult for me to really speak about long term growth solid look, especially with.
Daniel: Two new markets being in incipient stages and effort here to Portugal and Belgium.
Joe House: And.
Daniel: I was thinking of 2025 I've already mentioned earlier.
Joe House: Reaching the.
Joe House: Between 80, and 90000 or did you use in the first quarter in Portugal is certainly most helpful in satisfying.
Daniel: A low level.
Daniel: A low figure.
Daniel: Increase.
Daniel: Low single digit level of increase in terms of EBITDA.
Joe House: We are grateful to our customers we are grateful to our teams for the great work.
Daniel: And a low double digit increase in terms of revenues, that's our expectation for 2025.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We are grateful to our teams for the great work. We'll just continue working and building and developing the network. I'd say it's more or less same about Belgium, with the comment that we realize that Belgium will move slower in comparison to Portugal or Spain or Romania. A question from Flavio Nunes. Can you provide more clarity on the current level of coverage that you offer in Portugal, both in mobile and fixed networks? There have been complaints about faulty customer support in Portugal. What are you doing to address those issues? Flavio, I think the question is repeating itself a bit from the previous conversation. Our mobile coverage is exceeding 98% of the population. We kindly ask you to have patience as we just built this network very recently. We are continuously improving, updating, and upgrading it.
Joe House: And we'll just continue.
Operator: We're still very young, and I don't think you could expect a big momentum or big customer growth just in the first three or four months of operation.
Joe House: Working and building and developing the network.
Joe House: I'd say.
Giovanni: So a question from Giovanni.
Joe House: At the same it's more or less the same about Belgium with.
Reichenbach: Reichenbach Hi can you. Please provide an update on your liquidity profile Undrawn Rcs and all other available undrawn committed facilities.
Joe House: With the command it's.
Joe House: We realize that Belgium will oh move slow in comparison to Portugal, Spain Oh.
Operator: Thank you very much for the question.
Operator: So questions from Nora and Anthony?
Joe House: Yeah.
Giovanni: Giovanni I am not sure I, sorry, I don't have these numbers handy, but at this moment, especially due to.
Joe House: Okay.
Operator: Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation.
Joe House: A question from plugging in munis.
Operator: I have four questions Could you please share an update on the position of Telecom Romania Mobile. So, thank you Nora In fact, it's an ongoing process as we mentioned also last time on the call this week in the country. on the website of the competition authority. I think there's a public process to comment on these remedies by the beginning of June and I think based on that the competition authority will be in the position to make its final decision whether to approve or to approve with changes this transaction or eventually accept or ask some other remedies.
Joe House: Can you provide more clarity on the current level of coverage that you offer in Portugal, both in mobile and fixed networks.
Reichenbach: Sure.
Reichenbach: Lots of refinancings that we did in the last few months as I already mentioned.
Joe House: Theyre hinting complains about 40 customers supporting Portugal, what are you doing to address those issues.
Reichenbach: I'd say we have.
Reichenbach: Between 200 and provided a 50 million undrawn.
Joe House: So move.
Reichenbach: <unk>.
Joe House: I think the question is repeating itself the beat from up from the previous.
As we speak.
Reichenbach: So which is which I hope is helpful to anyone looking.
Joe House: Conversation.
Joe House: Well cover she's exceeding 98% of the population.
Reichenbach: To anyone looking.
Reichenbach: Oh a question from Simon. Please can you confirm the current size of your proprietary fixed network in Belgium, and the current state of negotiations for fixed wholesale access from other parties. What is your plan B. If you cannot agree of success.
Joe House: We.
Joe House: We kindly ask you to have patience as we just build these networks.
Joe House: Very recently, we are continuously improving updating upgrading eat.
Reichenbach: With all the operators.
Joe House: So coverage is changing and again improving.
Reichenbach: So starting from the in the plan B is to build the Columbia is actually planned eight which is always to build so this is.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Coverage is changing and, again, improving, as we speak and in days and in months. This is a continuous effort, on our side, but also it's a continuous effort with our partners, Cellnex and Vantage, to make sure that we provide the best coverage we can, to our customers. In terms of faulty customer support, we are aware of the need to work and also to improve our call center and our support. We are working on that and, yeah, we are trying to provide as good experience to our customers as possible. The third question. Would you consider the launch of Digi Portugal a success? Is it meeting your expectations? It's a difficult question and I think on a personal note. To say that it's not successful is wrong because we operate.
Joe House: As we speak and in the days and months and this is a continuous effort.
Reichenbach: Our main plant and this is something we.
Joe House: When all sites, but also it's a continuous effort with our partners sell.
Reichenbach: We are doing at this moment, we will continue doing in terms of announcing the size of the network.
Joe House: So next advantage to make sure that we provide the best coverage, we can to all customers in terms of.
Operator: So we sincerely hope that we are in the final stages of the process now.
Reichenbach: I think we are pretty much at the beginning and there's very little to say about.
Joe House: 40 customer support.
Operator: A second question, could you please provide a breakdown of RGUs in Belgium? Oh, it's very simple, these are mobile RGUs, so we have shared with you 53,000 mobile RGUs. 3.
Joe House: We.
Joe House: We are aware of the need to work and also to improve our.
Speaker Change: So a patient from.
Speaker Change: B S.
Reichenbach: Louis.
Joe House: Our.
Reichenbach: Have there been.
Joe House: Call Center and all the support we are working on that and so yeah. We are trying to provide to us.
Speaker Change: Some media reports on unpaid suppliers and Belgium. After the year results you said there were no liquidity issues.
Operator: Is there a one off in income tax since it's pretty hiir high this quarter? No. The income taxes are mostly affected by.. I leave the question to Dan. I think that the income taxes arrived affected more by deferred taxis rather than the actual cash taxes as we did not noticed any significant changes in accurate taxes. And in addition to that, it's a sale of assets in Spain that drives increase in tax. And when we say sale of assets in Spain, we refer to the Macquarie transaction.
Joe House: It's a good experience for our customers as possible.
Speaker Change: But the stories persist any update on that front well I just referred to the question Giovanni asked a bit earlier with.
Joe House: Okay.
Joe House: And the second question what do you most of it is the launch of Digi, Portugal, a success is it meeting your expectations.
Speaker Change: Over 200 million euros of Undrawn facilities, certainly there are no liquidity issues.
Joe House: Look for them.
Joe House: It's it's it's a it's it's a difficult question and I think on a personal note. So to say that it's not successfully is wrong because we operate we have customers on the network. The customers are using the service and we were caught up on a daily basis to provide the service.
Speaker Change: But having said this I don't see this discussion should go into an operational update.
Speaker Change: Belgium, I think we mentioned is also less time and with it. This time, so I hope it's I hope it's okay for you and for the rest of the audience.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We have customers on the network. The customers are using the service and we work hard on a daily basis to provide the service. To say that it is very successful is difficult. Again, it's very subjective. I think time will show how successful we are. Once again, we are certainly committed to the markets, to the customers on a very long-term basis. Our interest is to continue to evolve our coverage, the quality of our services, the number of users, and we will do our best to do so. Another question from Bojan. Romania. Are you happy with the proposed remedies from the regulator with regards to Telecom Romania? Yes. The remedies were proposed by us to be very exact from the procedural point of view.
Joe House: To say that it is very successful is difficult again is very subjective I think time will show.
Speaker Change: A question from <unk>.
Speaker Change: <unk> House.
Speaker Change: Can you share your views on our interests in both Portugal, and Belgium has been received by customers are you gaining customers in line with expectations well I think the best result is really shown through the numbers.
Joe House: How successful we are and once again, we are we are certainly committed.
Operator: And the final question is, do you confirm the CAPEX guidance for 2025? Yes, we do. So as we showed in our four markets in the first quarter, CAPEX was 169 million euro. Basically in line with our expectation for 750 million euro total CAPEX.
Joe House: Two the markets to the customers on a very long term basis.
Joe House: And our interest is to continue to evolve our coverage.
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: Reaching the.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Between 80, and 90000 RG use in the first quarter in Portugal is certainly most helpful in satisfying.
Quantity of all services the number of users and we'll do our best to solar.
Speaker Change: Another question from William <unk>.
Speaker Change: Again, we are grateful to our customers, we're grateful to our teams for the great work.
Speaker Change: I mean, yeah I think it was the proposed remedies from the regulator with regards to Telekom Romania.
Operator: So, question from, question from Yorick Dupont. Could you give more information about the launch of Digi in Belgium? Is 53k users in line with the expectations?
Speaker Change: And we'll just.
Speaker Change: Continue.
Speaker Change: Yes, the remedies.
Speaker Change: Working and building and developing the network.
Speaker Change: I'd say.
The remedies were proposed by us too.
Operator: When do you expect to be profitable with the business in Belgium? Have you anything to say about the job cuts that happened this year at Digi Belgium? So. As I said, there's not very much to say. We had a launch. It's a successful technical launch. We offer commercially the services. We are very grateful to our first 53,000 users and we certainly hope that more users come to our network.
Speaker Change: It's the same it's more or less same about Belgium.
Speaker Change: To be very exotic affirmed a procedural point of view they were reviewed by the regulator and they are now subject to a market.
Speaker Change: With the commended.
Speaker Change: We realize the Belgium will.
[Company Representative] (Digi): They were reviewed by the regulator and they are now subject to market test and market comments from the market participants. Since they were proposed by us, they were offered by us, these we certainly agree with the remedies. Okay. A question from Russell Waller. Hi. Can you give us an update on the fiber rollout in Portugal, please? Is the goal still for 50% coverage by the end of the year? Does the 50% target include any wholesale deals? Yes. We maintain the intention announced also during our last call for 50% country coverage by the end of the year. No changes there. Simply no. This figure does not include any wholesale deal. It's all our network. Another question from Ganesh.
Speaker Change: Move slow in comparison to Portugal, Spain.
Speaker Change: A market test.
Speaker Change: Oh yeah.
Speaker Change: <unk> monitoring comments from the market participants so she's basically they were proposal.
Speaker Change: Romania.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: A question from Flavio illness.
Speaker Change: Can you provide more clarity on the current level of coverage that you offered in Portugal, both in mobile and fixed networks.
Speaker Change: Oh for the buyout by us.
Speaker Change: These we certainly agree with the remedies.
Yeah.
Speaker Change: Okay a question from.
Speaker Change: The handling complains about 40 customer support in Portugal.
Operator: In terms of the last questions on expectations about profitability, it's very difficult to say, certainly not this year. Yeah, building an operator from scratch, launching an operator from zero is an expensive business which we risk to venture into.
Speaker Change: The rest of the water.
Speaker Change: To address those issues.
Speaker Change: Hi, can you give us an update on the fiber rollout in Portugal. Please is it goes to 450% coverage by the end of the year does that 50% target to quote any wholesale deals yes.
Speaker Change: So move.
Speaker Change: Flavio I think the question is repeating itself a bit from up from the previous.
Speaker Change: Conversation all mobile coverage is exceeding 98% of the population.
Speaker Change: We maintained then we maintained our intention announced also during our last call for 50% contract coverage by the end of the year. So no changes there and there is simply no.
Speaker Change: We.
Speaker Change: We kindly ask you to have patients as we just build these networks.
Speaker Change: Very recently, we are continuously improving updating upgrading eat or so coverage is changing and again improving.
Operator: And for the last part, if I have to say anything about the job costs that happened this year at DigiBelgium, again, nothing in addition to what was discussed also on the previous quarter call. We are early on in our operations, we are adjusting our needs, our activities, our performance as we speak, as we go, and yeah, we just realized that the organization was set up.
Speaker Change: This figure does not include any wholesale deal. So it's all one network.
Speaker Change: Another question from a niche or how many homes, possibly shift now in Spain.
Speaker Change: As we speak and in days and months and this is a continuous effort.
[Company Representative] (Digi): How many homes passed do you have now in Spain and when do you plan to sell next tranche to Macquarie? We have built ourselves more than 12.5 million homes in Spain, to date. We deliver homes to Macquarie continuously, as we speak. This is the process which will continue for the next 1 year and a half or so. This is something that is ongoing. When we say that it's a continuous process, it's a continuous process from the deal that we signed last year involving 6 million homes out of 12 and a half that we built in total by now. A question from Russell Waller. Is the intention still to get to 100% fiber coverage and over what time scale? What % of that will be wholesale do you think, please?
Speaker Change: And when do you plan to sell the next tranche to Macquarie.
Speaker Change: On our side, but also it's a continuous effort with our partners.
Speaker Change: We have built ourselves more than $12 5 million homes in Spain to date, we deliver homes to Macquarie. They continuously as we speak. So this is the process, which will continue for the next one year, one year and a half or so.
Speaker Change: So nixon advantage to make sure that we provide the.
Speaker Change: The best coverage, we can 12 customers.
Speaker Change: Terms of.
Speaker Change: <unk> customer support.
Speaker Change: We.
Speaker Change: We are aware of the needs to work and also to improve.
Operator: maybe for to be a larger one than necessary at this moment and we try to resize it and to rescale it and just as I mentioned it last time we will do as many cuts or as many changes personnel strategy management wise as we need to make sure that we have the most effective operations also in Belgium ultimately our goal is to provide good services affordable services to our users in all our market Belgium included and we'll do everything we can to achieve that A question from Bojan Djurkovic, what was in particular attributable to the impressive RGU growth?
Speaker Change: And so this is something that that is.
Our.
Speaker Change: Call Center and our support we are working on that and so we are trying to provide to us.
Speaker Change: That is ongoing and when we say that is a continuous process. It's a continuous process from the deal that we signed last year involving 6 million homes out of 2012 and a half that we built in total by Mt.
Speaker Change: Good experience to our customers as possible.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: And the second question what are you most of it is the launch of Digi, Portugal, a success is it meeting your expectations.
Russell Waller: A question from Russell Waller.
Speaker Change: Luca.
Russell Waller: Is the intention still to get to 100% fiber coverage and over what time scale what percent of that would be wholesale leasing. Please.
Speaker Change: It's it's it's a it's a difficult question and I think on a personal note. So to say this is not successful is wrong because we operate we have customers on the network. The customers are using the service and we work hard on a daily basis to provide the service.
Russell Waller: Believe the question refers to Portugal.
[Company Representative] (Digi): I believe the question refers to Portugal. I think long-term the answer is yes. We still intend to cover meaningfully, more or less, the entire country. I refer to Portugal. It's however, it's very difficult for me to say now how soon or how quick we'll do it. I'd rather defer this question to some later time. A question from Ganesh. How many homes passed do you expect to build in Spain this year? I think the speed of rolling out the networks is more or less constant for us and it's centered around 2 million plus homes passed as we speak. This is the number. I hope it's helpful. Andrew Webb. How did your Q1 Portuguese results compare to your expectations? Yeah, once again, it's, they're I don't know. It's a complicated answer.
Russell Waller: I think long term down cities, yes, we still intend to cover meaningfully more or less the entire country. If they have to.
Speaker Change: To say that it is very successful is difficult again is very subjective I think time will show.
Russell Waller: Portugal is however, it's very difficult for me to stay now a whole suite of how quick we will do it.
Operator: I'll stop here. It's a long question.
Operator: Look, there's a very simple answer to that. It's Spain. Spain all along. I mean, Spain accounts for, if I'm not wrong, uh yeah just one second uh to have a look uh so Spain accounts for roughly two-thirds of the growth that we achieve. very good commercial momentum that we have. We have very good engagement with our customers and we are extremely happy about that.
Speaker Change: How successful we are and once again.
Russell Waller: So I'd rather defer this question to some later time.
Speaker Change: We we are certainly committed.
Russell Waller: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Two the markets to the customers on a very long term basis.
Speaker Change: Got a question from Ganesh how many homes do you expect to build in Spain. This year.
Speaker Change: And our interest is to continue to evolve our coverage.
Russell Waller: Yes.
Russell Waller: I think oh, the speed of rolling out the networks.
Speaker Change: Quality of our services the number of users and we will do our best to be sold.
Russell Waller: Is more or less constant for us and.
William: Another question from William.
Russell Waller: It's a.
Russell Waller: Thank you.
Speaker Change: I think it was the proposed remedies from the regulator with regards to Telekom Romania.
Russell Waller: It's centered around 2 million 2 million plus corresponds to that as we speak. So so so this is the number I hope itself.
William: Yes, the remedies.
Russell Waller: Yeah.
Speaker Change: The remedies were proposed by us to.
Andrew: Yeah Andrew.
Andrew: Andrew with how did you Q1, Portuguese results compared to your expectations.
Operator: Would it be fair to assume that at least partially came at the expense of ARPU? I'm not so sure. I don't think so, in fact. increased, we have an increase in growth, however it is not our first quarter of growth. Certainly it helps, but I do not think it is the main reason. As always, our strategy, our results are based on a number of factors, quality of service, the way we interact with our customers, but also price being few of them.
Speaker Change: To be very exotic affirmed a procedural point of view they were reviewed by the regulator and they are now subject to a.
Andrew: Yeah once again.
Andrew: It's.
Andrew: Yeah.
Andrew:
Speaker Change: Market test and monitoring comments from the market participants so she's basically they were proposed buyout offer to buy or buy by us.
Andrew: They are there.
Andrew: I don't know if it's at least it's a complicated answer.
Andrew: We are.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We are stressed ourselves by the -EBITDA that we generate in these operations to be very sincere and very open. We will focus and we will do everything we can to reduce this gap between revenues and costs as much as we can and as quickly as we can. Having said this, there are lots of things to do also in terms of customer experience. On the other hand, we have users. We have happy users that are relying on our service. I think the service delivers what we promised, good quality service at an affordable price. From this point of view, I think it was a good launch. How is the repricing of the NOWO customer base going? Well, we are migrating the NOWO customers to DigiNetwork. Along with this, there is also repricing.
Andrew: Today's ourselves by then.
Speaker Change: These we certainly agree with the remedies.
Andrew: The negative EBITDA that we generated from these operations to be very Tcf video open and we will focus and we will do.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Okay a question from.
Speaker Change: Oh Russell water.
Andrew: We can to reduce this gap between.
Speaker Change: Hi, can you give us an update on the fiber rollout in Portugal. Please is the goal still for 80% coverage by the end of the year does the 50% target to quote any wholesale deduced yes.
Andrew: Revenues and costs as much as we can and as quickly as we can having said this there are lots of things to do also in terms of customer experience.
Speaker Change: We maintained and we maintain the intention announced also during our last call for 50% contract coverage by the end of the year. So no changes there and.
Andrew: Uh huh.
Operator: Where do you see Spanish ARPA going forward? we have changed our offers recently. We have seen existing customers changing packages, opting for more affordable ones. We see new customers coming. We don't see, we don't think there'll be significant changes in the RTOS going forward, but still, I would look at this with caution. This is something that we'll have to look for, I think, for the rest of the year.
Andrew: No wonder the hands, where heavy users we have repeat users that are.
Speaker Change: The language Saturdays.
Andrew: And I seem to service delivers what we promised.
Speaker Change: Simply no D.
Speaker Change: This figure does not include any wholesale deal. So it's all one network.
Andrew: Good quality service and it's an affordable priced so from this point of view I think it was a good launch.
Speaker Change: Another question from vanished.
Andrew: How is the repricing will de novo customer base are going well when we are migrating to mobile customers to <unk> network.
Speaker Change: How many homes passed the shift now is thin.
Speaker Change: And when do you plan to sell next tranche to Macquarie.
Speaker Change: We have built our sales more than $12 5 million homes in Spain to date.
Andrew: Along with that is also the pricing. So it's it's it's it's it's it's an ongoing process and it's it goes with it.
[Company Representative] (Digi): It's an ongoing process and it goes well. I will not tell you numbers. We will rather tell you when the process is finished. I think it's going pretty well, pretty good and we have no surprises there. Are you on track with Portuguese FTTH rollout plan to cover 50% of premises by year-end? The answer is yes. Are you still considering wholesale agreements for Portuguese fixed line access in Portugal? We always consider wholesale agreements in all markets where we operate, so we are very much open to such opportunities. So far, there were no possibility to access our competitor's network on affordable prices. Are you still exploring national roaming agreements with existing operators in Portugal? This may be of interest to improve eventually access coverage of our network in certain areas.
Speaker Change: We deliver homes to Macquarie. They continuously as we speak. So this is a process, which will continue for the next one year, one year and a half.
Andrew: I will not.
Speaker Change: Well your numbers.
Speaker Change: We would rather tell you when the process is finished but I think it's going it's going pretty well pretty good and we had no surprises there.
Speaker Change: So and so this is something that is.
Operator: The next question is on general finance, interest expense, what was the main reason for such a rise in interest expense in the first quarter? I think the main reason is the fact that we recycled a very cheap bond by repaying it partially with refinanced funds, partially with own funds, however we also borrowed extra funds towards the end of the year and all new facilities come at least at 2-2.5% higher cost. By the way, by saying this, I think we are efficient for operators of our size and operators of our standing in terms of interest cost, but on the other hand, it's just that we were very lucky and we had a very cheap facility in place originating from pre-Covid era.
Speaker Change: Are you on track with Portuguese if th rollout planned to cover 50% of premises by Dan and the answer is yes, I used to considering wholesale agreements for Portuguese fixed line access in Portugal, we always consider wholesale agreements in all markets, where we operate.
Speaker Change: That is ongoing and when we say that is a continuous process. It's a continuous process from the deal that we signed last year involving 6 million homes out of trailing 12, and a half that we build in total by now.
Russell Waller: A question from Russell Waller.
So we are very much open to such opportunities, but so far there were no possibility to access our competitor doesn't have to work on affordable.
Russell Waller: Is the intention still to get to 100% fiber coverage and over what time scale what percent of that will be wholesale leasing. Please.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: Believe the question refers to Portugal.
Are you still exploring national roaming agreements with existing operators in Portugal.
Speaker Change: I think long term down cities, yes, we still intend to cover meaningfully more or less the entire country ASF to Portugal.
Speaker Change: Also these may be of interest to.
Speaker Change: To improve food eventually.
Speaker Change: However, it's very difficult for me to say now how soon or how quickly we'll do it.
Speaker Change: Coverage of our network is something that is however, as we launch those 76 a.
Speaker Change: So I'd rather defer this question to some later time.
[Company Representative] (Digi): However, as we launched our services at the end of last year, as we built most of our network with more than 98% coverage, I think the pressure and the need for such service is decreasing. A question from Russell Waller. Just to clarify, you said Belgium is not consolidated. The EUR 750 million of CapEx guidance includes Belgium. How do I reconcile those two statements? Thank you. Also, does the EUR 750 million include the Romania or Portugal M&A cost? Starting with the end. Yes, EUR 750 million includes the M&A that we expect in Romania. We don't expect any M&A in Portugal for this year. Yes, indeed, what you mentioned is correct. I did say that Belgium is not consolidated. I also did say that EUR 750 million of CapEx is inclusive of Belgium.
Speaker Change: At the end of last year as he built most of our network.
Speaker Change: A question from Ganesh, how many homes do you expect to build in Spain. This year.
Speaker Change: With more than 98% coverage.
Operator: So yeah, we pay higher interest, but all in all, there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker Change: I think the pressure and the need for such service is is decreasing.
Speaker Change: Yes.
ashish: Ashish I think.
Operator: I think the general context is that, as you will also appreciate, we all believe that we are in a declining interest market, so we don't expect this to worsen or to affect us significantly going forward. I hope it's helpful.
ashish: The speed of rolling out the networks.
A question for al, but I sort of water.
Speaker Change: So sort of just to clarify you said vision is not consolidated but at 750 million copies as items equals Belgium Jose reconcile those two statements. Thank you also done the 750 million Euro include the Romania, or Portugal M&A cost.
ashish: It is more or less constant for us.
ashish: And it's.
ashish: E E.
ashish: Is it centered around 2 million 2 million plus homes passed as we speak. So so so this is the number I hope it's helpful.
Operator: And a third question from Boyan, Belgium, when do you plan to disclose operational KPIs? Does the CAPEX envelope of EUR 750 million include Belgium? So Belgium is at this moment a joint venture between, roughly 50-50 joint venture between us and our partner CityMesh, our Belgian partner.
ashish: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah Andrew.
Andrew: Andrew Web how did you Q1, Portuguese results compare to your expectations.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: So starting with vans.
Speaker Change: Yes, 750 million includes the M&A that we expect in Romania, We don't expect any M&A in Portugal for the.
Andrew: Yeah once again.
Andrew: It's.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Andrew: Deb.
Speaker Change: And yes.
Andrew: I don't know if its if Lisa it's a complicated answer.
Indeed, Oh I see what what you mentioned is correct I did say that there Jamie is not consolidated but they also did say that 700.
Andrew: We are.
Andrew: Stressed ourselves by.
Andrew:
Operator: And as long as this company remains as a joint venture, we will not consolidate these results and there will be no more disclosure on the operational KPIs. If this situation changes, of course, this discussion will also change. And the third question, does the CAPEX of 750 include also Belgium? And the simple answer is yes.
Andrew: Negative EBITDA that we generated from these operations to be very Tcf video open and we will focus and we will do everything we can to reduce this gap between our.
Speaker Change: 50 million Euro of Capex is inclusive all four is inclusive of vision. If you looked at our numbers would be theatres that we have for <unk>.
[Company Representative] (Digi): If you looked at our numbers a bit earlier, we have spent CapEx of EUR 170 million in all markets excluding Belgium in Q1, just doing a simple arithmetic and annualization that gives you the EUR 680 million total CapEx for the year. Again, I'm not saying this is the number and it's just four times. There's plenty of room for us also to support the Belgian operations in this number. I hope this is helpful. Your observations were correct and thank you for the question. A question from Christian Caricas. How do you see the ARPU in Portugal by the end of the year and going forward? You mentioned in the last call that you expect it will decrease as NOWO migration continues. Thank you. Yes, the overall dynamic, the overall strategy is the same. There are no changes.
Andrew: Revenues and costs as much as we can and as quickly as we can.
Speaker Change: Oh Capex of 170 million euros in all markets. Excluding date of June in the first quarter, just doing a simple and estimating and amortization that gives you 680 million Euro our total capex for the year again, I'm not saying this.
Andrew: He said these there are lots of things to do also in terms of customer experience.
Andrew: But on the other hand, we're heavy users we have HIPAA users that are.
Operator: A follow-up from Nora. How big was the CAPEX in Belgium? Thank you. Well, just as I mentioned, we are not disclosing the CAPEX and the numbers for Belgium. Yeah, hopefully we will speak this sometime later.
Andrew: Relying on our service.
Andrew: And I seem to service delivers what we promised.
Speaker Change: Is the number that it's just four times, but there's plenty of room for hospitals to support the Belgian operations in this number and I hope. This is helpful, but what Yo Yo Yo observations may predict and thank you for the question.
Andrew: Good quality service and at an affordable price. So from this point of view I think it was a good launch.
Speaker Change: How is the repricing of de Novo customer base are going well.
Speaker Change: We are migrating the novel customers strategic network.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Operator: Question from Vlad Podia. Hi, thank you for the presentation. Can you provide more details on what caused the 49% year-on-year and 2.6 times quarter-on-quarter increase in interest expense, especially considering the overall decline in your report over the past quarters and the fact that most of the debt consists of floating interest loans?
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: A question from Cristiano Ekati cost.
Speaker Change: Along with these there is also the pricing. So it's it's it's it's it's it's an ongoing process and it goes well.
Speaker Change: How do you see the opt in Portugal by the end of the year and going forward you mentioned in the last call that you expect it will decrease as the mobile migration continues the thank you so yes.
Speaker Change: I will not tell.
Speaker Change: The real numbers.
Speaker Change: We would rather tell you when the process is finished but I think it's going it's going pretty well pretty good and we had no surprises there.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
The overall dynamic the overall strategy is the same there are no changes. So from this point of view there'd be a decline in our book, which we.
Operator: So I think we addressed that. We used to have a very cheap bond, which was fixed. By very cheap, I mean it was 2.5% all-in cost. And yeah, we can't borrow today at those rates anymore.
[Company Representative] (Digi): From this point of view, there'll be a decline in ARPU, which we know that we expect or we intend to compensate with the increase in RGUs. However, it's difficult for me to comment on the exact levels as we have not decided the full calendar and how and the speed of the conversion. A question from Inês Pinto Miguel. Hello. Thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions on the Portuguese presence. What are your takes on the first full trimester of the operations in Portugal? Second, what was the impact of the blackout on 28 April? Well, thank you. I think the first question was addressed. I'm not sure I should come back, but I would say everything we have in Portugal is a work in progress.
Speaker Change: Are you on track with Portuguese F C th rollout planned to cover 50% of premises by Dan and the answer is yes are you still considering wholesale agreements for Portuguese fixed line access in Portugal, we always consider wholesale agreements in all markets we operate.
Speaker Change: No we expect that we intend to compensate with the increase in our juice.
Speaker Change: It's difficult for me to comment on the exact levels as we we have not decided the full calendar and 12 and the speed of the over the road of the conversion.
Operator: A question from Piotr Raciborski. What level of CAPEX and EBITDA do we expect in 2025? So, CAPEX we mentioned, we maintain our guidance of €750 million.
Speaker Change: So we are very much open to such opportunities, but so far there were no possibility to access our competitors' network on affordable.
Speaker Change: The question from English being taught me grill.
Speaker Change: Oh Hello. Thank you for the presentation I have a few questions on the Portuguese business.
Operator: For EBITDA, overall, year on year, we expect a slight increase in the low-level digits. In coquere sono tutti soldi, non senti forza.
Speaker Change: Prices.
Speaker Change: What is it takes on the first full prime minister of the patients in Portugal.
Speaker Change: Are you still exploring national roaming agreements with existing operators in Portugal.
Speaker Change: And second what was the impact of the blackout on April 28th Yeah. Thank you I think the first question wasn't there.
Speaker Change: Also this may be of.
Speaker Change: Interest.
Speaker Change: The improved food eventually.
Operator: When do you expect Portugal to reach break-even on EBITDA level? Well, it's too early to assume. We will do our best that this happens. quickly or relatively quickly over the next one or two years.
Speaker Change: I'm not sure I should come back, but I would say everything we can in Portugal is a work in progress and once again, we are extremely grateful to our customers for joining us on the network. We are extremely grateful for being our first users.
Speaker Change: Coverage of our network is something that is however, as we launched those synergies.
Speaker Change: At the end of last year as we build most of our network.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Once again, we are extremely grateful to our customers for joining our network. We are very grateful for being first users, and, yeah, trusting us and also using our services. For the second question, yes, it was an unfortunate event which affected both us and most of our competitors, either fully or partially. Particularly in our case, we are hit also by the blackout. While for a few hours our operations were available throughout an important part, half or more than half of the network, in the second part of the blackout and for a good number of hours after, our network was down as we were busy bringing it back. Finally, the network is back and we have seen all our customers also coming back.
Speaker Change: With more than 98% coverage.
Speaker Change: I think the pressure underneath for such service is is decreasing.
Operator: A question from Anton.
Operator: Can you please comment on your commercial momentum in Portugal? How many of the mobile RGU ads were on Novo versus the newly launched Digibrand? So I think you have now the Q4 report and you have also the Q1 report. You already have the dynamic, the commercial dynamic. In particular, during the first quarter we had 67,000 mobile users. We've added 10,000 fixed broadband users, 4,000 pay TV users. All these users were added on Digis networks and not on Novo network as we are not active commercially on the Novo network.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Speaker Change: Yeah, Trump trusting us, but also using our services.
Russell Waller: A question from Russell Waller.
Russell Waller: Just to sort of just to clarify you said, Belgium is not consolidated but at $750 million of Capex as items equals, Belgium Jose to cross sell those two statements. Thank you also done the 750 million Euro include the Romania, or Portugal M&A.
Speaker Change: For the second question, yes. It is.
It was an unfortunate event, which affected both us and the.
Speaker Change: Most of our competitors are either fully or partially particularly in our case.
Speaker Change: We.
Russell Waller: Yes.
Russell Waller:
Speaker Change: We are we have hit also by the breakout.
Russell Waller: So starting with vans.
Speaker Change: And well for a few hours of operations, where available slowed and important part cost from other coupled with the network.
Speaker Change: Yes, $750 million includes the M&A that we expect in Romania, We don't expect any M&A in Portugal for this year.
Speaker Change: In the second part of the blackout and for a good number of hours after all when it when it goes down as they are busy bringing intake, but finally the network is bacon to we have seen all our customers also coming back and once again, it's another big Thank you for the patience and Florida.
Russell Waller: And yes indeed.
Russell Waller: What what you mentioned is correct I did say that bill Jimmy is not consolidated but they also DC to 750.
Operator: A question from Darius. How large was maintenance capex for in 2024 and how much should we expect for 2025? We're not really splitting our capex by growth and maintenance.
Russell Waller: 50 million Euro of Capex is inclusive of four is inclusive of vision. If you looked at our numbers a bit earlier, we have food spend.
[Company Representative] (Digi): Once again, it's another big thank you for the patience and for trusting our services. Yes, it was a one-off experience, I think, both for us but also for our competitors. We sincerely hope the energy sector will be more resilient and it doesn't happen again. A question from Jeremy Ben-Nathan. Are you still committed to 50% fixed coverage in Portugal by the end of 2025 and rolling out 200 to 100 in the future? I think that we did mention this couple of times already. The answer is yes and yes. A comeback from Inês Pinto Miguel. I didn't understand your early answer. The RGU of Q1 only have Digi. It doesn't have the NOWO clients included? No, you should read the answer differently. The RGU numbers include both NOWO and Digi customers because they are Digi Group customers overall.
Speaker Change: Trust team.
Speaker Change: Although it services.
Speaker Change: Yes. It was a one off experience I've seen both for us, but also for our competitors and we sincerely hope that energy sector will be more resilient and it doesn't happen again.
Operator: I'd expect that our maintenance capex is in the area of 150 million euros.
Russell Waller: Capex of 170 million euros in all markets, excluding Bayer June in the first quarter generating a simple arithmetic and amortization that gives you 680 million Euro total capex for the year again I must say this is the number on it.
Operator: How are you feeling about the Belgian launch? Is 53,000 RGUs a satisfying start or not? It is very satisfying, but as I just repeat what I said at the very beginning of the call, both Portugal and Belgium take a lot of work from our colleagues that are based in these markets and we try to support them as much as we can. We keep our fingers crossed. There's just plenty of work. So if you ask us, we feel very good about this number. It's a good start and we are looking forward for, of course, much better results in the future.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Jeremy: Question from Jeremy.
Speaker Change: Jeremy Van Natta, I used to commit it to 50% fixed coverage in Portugal by the end of 2075 in the morning, All 200 to 100 in the future I think that we did mention these couple of times already and the answer is yes and yes.
Russell Waller: Just four times, but there's plenty of room for US also to support the Belgian operations in these numbers and I Hope. This is helpful, but what Yo Yo Yo observations were correct and thank you for the question.
Jeremy:
Uh huh.
Russell Waller: Okay.
Jeremy: Come back from English.
Russell Waller:
Russell Waller: A question from Cristiano Ekati cost.
Jeremy: I didn't understand your earlier answer the <unk> the first quarter only had D. G. It doesn't have the novel Classic Boot is no you should be done so definitely a dodgy numbers include both novel and D. G customers because they are D. G group customers are a little what I wanted to say and.
Russell Waller: How do you see the ARPA and Portugal by the end of the year and going forward you mentioned in the last call that you expect it will decrease as the mobile migration continues the thank you so yes.
Russell Waller: Uh huh.
Russell Waller: The overall dynamic the overall strategy is the same there are no changes. So from this point of view there'd be a decline in our pool, which we.
Operator: So another question from Darius. What is your revenue EBITDA outlook for 2025 and what is your longer term gross outlook?
[Company Representative] (Digi): What I wanted to say and I'm just clarifying is that the increase or the additions in the Q1 come from Digi Network because Digi Network is commercially active and Novo is not. A question from Rohan Sankla. Do you plan to build 100% of Spain in FTTH homes passed? If not, how do you decide on which locations, what % of total Spain to build? Yeah. It's a tough one. I'm not sure we intend to build 100% of Spain. Spain has a vast and complex geography. It's a big country. We are very happy with the buildout that we achieved so far, the 12.5 million homes. We're certainly not stopping here. We will consider this as we go forward in the next 2 or 3 years, eventually how big the network is and what the network coverage should be.
Jeremy: Im just clarifying is that the increase or the additions in the first quarter come from D. G network because D. G network is commercially active and novel Eternal.
Russell Waller: No we expect that we intend to compensate with ADT freezing our juice. However, it's difficult for me to comment on the on data flavors as we we have not decided the full calendar and call you to speed over the over the road of the conversion.
Operator: It's difficult for me to really speak about long-term growth outlook, especially with two new markets being in incipient stages. I refer here to Portugal and Belgium. But speaking of 2025, I've already mentioned earlier... a low single-digit level increase in terms of EBITDA and a low double-digit increase in terms of revenues. That's our expectation for 2025.
Jeremy: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh, a question from broken some club.
Speaker Change: Do you plan to do 100% of state E. F C th, France bust, if not only decide on which locations what percent of total spent to build.
Speaker Change: A question from English being Tony Grill.
Speaker Change: Hello. Thank you for the presentation I have a few questions on the Portuguese presence.
Speaker Change: It's each.
Speaker Change: What it takes on the first true Prime minister of the patients in Portugal.
Speaker Change: It's it it's a it's a tough one I'm not sure we intend to build 100% of Spain.
Speaker Change: And second what was the impact of the blackout on April 28th Yeah, well. Thank you I think the first question was addressed.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: So Spain is.
Speaker Change: His vast and complex deal, but if he is a big country.
Speaker Change: Not sure I should come back but I.
Operator: So a question from Giovanni.
Operator: The second question is from Mr Ramahan before me. type i can you please provide an update on your liquidity blood on groomers here, and blood on groomers here, and the any know connected facility.
Speaker Change: We we are very happy with the build out that we achieved so far on the $12 5 million homes, we simply are not stopping here, but we will.
Speaker Change: I would say everything we have in Portugal is a work in progress and once again, we are extremely grateful to our customers.
Speaker Change: Joining me on iPhone, we're extremely.
Operator: question question, Drizaki Giovanni Not sure. Hi, sorry, I don't hear these numbers handy, but this numbers handy, but at this moment, especially due due to laws do to Lost early to lose. In the last three month. I've only I've only got three months, as I would have been mentioned. I say we have, you know he's I'd say we here for you to between 200 and 250 million under-owned facilities as we speak. So, which I hope is helpful to anyone looking.
Speaker Change: Thanks for being a faster.
Speaker Change: I don't see them at least as it go forward within the next.
Speaker Change: And yeah.
Speaker Change: Two or three years.
Speaker Change: Eventually.
Speaker Change: And gosh well spacing.
Speaker Change: How big the network is and the work.
Speaker Change: Yes.
Speaker Change: For second question, yes.
Speaker Change: Well the network.
Speaker Change: But it should be we tried when we when we do the network with an eye also to assess the number of converted users that we have on our combined fixed and mobile networks and they seem to be sees AR. This is by far the most important criteria for us to expand their networks.
Speaker Change: And unfortunate events.
Speaker Change: Good.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We try when we build the network, we try also to assess the number of converged users that we have on our combined fixed and mobile network. I think this is by far the most important criteria for us to expand the networks. A question from Dan Sica. Do you have any target for expansion of 5G coverage in Romania? Not really. We cover more than half of Romania with 5G services. We will continue increasing this coverage both this year and next year. We are not committed to a number. Eventually, we'll announce when we build. Marius Gîscă. How many users do you need for a break-even in Portugal? Well. I think so well, I'm not sure we think now in users. Well, I think sorry. Apology.
Speaker Change: And.
Speaker Change: Most of our competitors.
Speaker Change: Either fully or partially.
Speaker Change: Particularly in our case.
Speaker Change: We oh.
Speaker Change: We were hit also by the blackout.
Speaker Change: And well for a few hours of operations, where available throat and important part of our mother, coupled with the network.
Speaker Change: Oh, a question from Dan CCAR do you have any targets for expansion of five G coverage in.
Operator: A question from Simon. Please, can you confirm the current size of your proprietary fixed network in Belgium and the current state of negotiations for fixed wholesale access from other parties? What is your plan B if you cannot agree access terms with the other operators?
Speaker Change: Romania.
Speaker Change: In the second part of the blackout and I'm sure a good number of hours. After one at work was down as we were busy they need it effects. The finally the network is back into we have seen all our customers also coming back and once again, it's another big Thank you for the patients and the Florida.
Speaker Change: Not really we called border northern half of Romania, with a five <unk> services, we will continue increasing.
Operator: So, starting from the end, the plan B is to build. The plan B is actually plan A, which is always to build. So, this is our main plan and this is something we are doing at this moment. We will continue doing.
Speaker Change: This coverage.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: <unk> DCF and next year.
Speaker Change: But we are not committed to a number of.
Speaker Change: Thrusting.
Eventually, we'll announce when we built.
Speaker Change: Oh Woe services.
Operator: In terms of announcing the size of the network, uh i think we are pretty much at the beginning and there's very little to say about So a question from B.S. Erui. Have there been...
Speaker Change: But yes. It was a one off experience I think both for us, but also for our competitors and we sincerely hope the energy sector will be more resilient and it doesn't happen again.
Modulus quiche, how many users do you need for a breakeven in Portugal.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh well.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: I think.
Jeremy: Question from Jeremy.
Speaker Change: Oh, so so well.
Jeremy: Jeremy Van Natta.
Speaker Change: Still committed to 50% fixed coverage in Portugal by the end of 2075 from Rolling out 200 to 100 in the future I think the we.
Speaker Change: I'm not sure we think now in U S.
Speaker Change: But.
Speaker Change: Well I think that's what he's already said of his apology.
Speaker Change: We did mention these couple of times already and the answer is yes and yes.
Speaker Change: So we probably need the.
[Company Representative] (Digi): we probably need to double our fixed customer base and to double our mobile customer base from where we are today to come close to a black position. This is just a rough estimation as we speak. What do you mean Novo is not commercially active? I understood that you decreased prices at Novo to align them with Digi, suggesting you are still actively managing the brand. Is the long-term plan to rebrand Novo into Digi? It was a question from Anton. It was a comeback to a previous question. No. What I mean, the following. Digi and Novo continue to operate as two standalone brands. We are in an exercise to migrate Novo's customers to Digi Network.
Speaker Change: To double our fixed customer base and a tool doubled.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: Come.
Speaker Change: Mobile customer base from where we're today to come close to them to.
Speaker Change: Come back from English.
Speaker Change: I didn't understand your early onset of the <unk> of the first quarter only half D. G. It doesn't have the novel class included no you should read answer differently. W. Numbers include both novel and DG customers because they are BG group customers are a little what I wanted to say and.
Speaker Change: To come close to a black position.
Speaker Change: This is just a rough estimation as we speak.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Operator: Thank you for your time.
Speaker Change: What do you mean novel is not commercially active and as students decreased prices that novel to align them with a D. G, suggesting youre still actively managing the brand is the long term plan to rebrand novel into D. G. It was a question from Tony It was it was a come back to a previous question no what timing I mean before.
Speaker Change: Im just clarifying is that the increase or the additions in the first quarter comp from DG network because D. G network is commercially active and novel is not.
Operator: A question from Joe House, can you share your views on how entrants in both Portugal and Belgium have been received by customers? Are you gaining customers in line with expectations? Well, I think the best result is really shown through the numbers. reaching between 80,000 and 90,000 RGUs in the first quarter in Portugal is certainly both helpful and satisfying.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh D G and novel continue to operate as two Standalone brands and we are in an exercise to migrate normal customers to <unk> network and as soon as they make great. They are.
Speaker Change: A question from Broadcom Soundcloud.
Speaker Change: We plan to build 100% of Spain in S. E T H, France passed if not only decide on which locations what percent of total space to build.
Operator: Again, we are grateful to our customers, we are grateful to our teams for the great work, and we'll just continue working and building and developing the network. I'd say it's more or less the same about Belgium with the comment that we realize that Belgium will move slower in comparison to Portugal, Spain, or Romania.
[Company Representative] (Digi): As soon as they migrate, they come through Digi package, they start using Digi services and they benefit from Digi's prices. That's what I meant to say. When I say that NOWO is not commercially active, we are not focusing on doing sales under the NOWO brand. We are focusing to do sales under the Digi brand. Follow-up question from Keval. How many homes do you want to cover with fiber long-term in Spain? I think I mentioned this earlier. There is no target. We'll certainly continue building networks in the next 2 or 3 years. We'll have to assess this as we go forward. Once again, an important element to that is or can be our ability to sign wholesale deals. It's not that we're not interested to go to 100% of Spain. It's the question of how do we do that.
Speaker Change: It's.
Speaker Change: Is it.
Speaker Change: They come through D. G. They could they they they stopped using did you say this is and they benefit from did use prices.
Speaker Change: It's a it's a tough one I'm not sure we intend to build 100% of Spain.
Speaker Change: So.
Speaker Change: That's what I meant to say and when I say that nobody's not commercially active we are not focusing on doing sales onto the novel brand. We are focusing to do sales onto the beach brand.
Speaker Change: So Spain.
Speaker Change: His vast and complex geography, it's a big country.
Speaker Change: We we are very happy with the build out that we achieved so far in the $12 5 million homes, we simply are not stopping here, but we will.
Speaker Change: Oh, a question a follow up question from Kim Bob.
Kim Bob: How many homes do you want to cover with five but long term in Spain.
Speaker Change: Consider this as they go forward in the next.
Operator: A question from Flavio Nunes, can you provide more clarity on the current level of coverage that you offer in Portugal, both in mobile and fixed networks? There have been complaints about faulty customer support in Portugal, what are you doing to address those issues? Flavio, I think the question is repeating itself a bit from the previous conversation. Our mobile coverage is exceeding 98% of the population. We kindly ask you to have patience as we just built this network very recently. We are continuously improving, updating, upgrading it so coverage is changing and again improving as we speak and in days and in months and this is a continuous effort on our side but also it's a continuous effort with our partners, CellNext and Vantage to make sure that we provide the best coverage we can to our customers.
Kim Bob: I think I mentioned this earlier there is no targets will certainly continue building networks in the next two or three years.
Speaker Change: Two or three years.
Speaker Change: Eventually how big the network is and.
Speaker Change: Or will the network.
Kim Bob: We'll have to assess.
Speaker Change: Coverage should be.
Speaker Change: We tried when we when we do the network with an eye also to assess the number of users that we have on our combined fixed and mobile networks and they seem to this is our this.
Kim Bob: This as we go forward once again, an important element to that ease or can be our ability to sign wholesale DS.
Kim Bob: It's not that we don't need to go to 100% of Spain is the question on the call who would do that.
Speaker Change: This is by far the most important criteria for us to expand their networks.
Kim Bob: So we'll have to we'll have to think of it until there is that and the second question you mentioned Spanish margins to improve towards the end of the year.
Speaker Change: Oh.
[Company Representative] (Digi): We'll have to think and we'll have to address that. The second question, you mentioned Spanish margins will improve towards the end of the year. What will drive this? Well, I think 2 things are driving our Spanish margins. On 1 hand, it's the growth in customers, which is always helpful. The second, as we were discussing on our previous calls, we are migrating from an MVNO to MNO type of relationship with Telefónica. It has slightly different economics also, which also helps our margin to a certain extent. Yeah. So far, so good. I think we had the full hour with the presentation and questions. The questions stopped. We will wait on the line for 1 or 2 minutes. If there'll be no questions, no further questions, we'll close the line. Yeah.
Speaker Change: A question from Dan CCAR do you have any targets for expansion of five G coverage in.
Kim Bob: Well I think two things are driving those finished margins one.
Speaker Change: Romania.
Speaker Change: Not really.
Kim Bob: And it's the growth in customers, which is always helpful and the second we as we were discussing on previous calls we are migrating from an N V. N O two MMO type of relationship with Telefonica and each has slightly different.
Speaker Change: We cover more than half of Romania, with a five <unk> services, we will continue increasing.
Speaker Change: This coverage.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: <unk> DCF and next year.
Speaker Change: But we are not committed to a number of event.
Speaker Change: Eventually we will announce when we built.
Kim Bob: Economics, or so which also helps fault margin a toss up.
Speaker Change: Modules quiche, how many users do you need for a breakeven in Portugal.
And extend it.
Kim Bob: Yeah, so so far so good.
Operator: In terms of floating customer support, we are aware of the need to work and also to improve our call center and our support. We are working on that and we are trying to provide as good experience to our customers as possible.
Speaker Change: Well I think we hit the full hour was the presentation of questions.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh well.
Kim Bob: And the question stoked.
Speaker Change:
Speaker Change: I think.
Kim Bob: So we will wait on the line for a minute or two.
Speaker Change: So well.
Speaker Change: Well.
Kim Bob: And if there'll be no questions no further questions for will.
Speaker Change: I'm not sure we think now in universe.
Kim Bob: Close the line.
Speaker Change: But the.
Kim Bob: Yeah. So.
Speaker Change: Well I think as far as what he said he isn't apology.
[Company Representative] (Digi): I think, once again, a big thank you for all of you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening and participating. We'll meet again mid-August discussing the Q2 results. Thank you very much. See you soon.
Kim Bob: Then I think once again, a big thank you for all of you.
Speaker Change: So we probably need the.
Kim Bob: Thank you for joining thank you for listening and participating.
Speaker Change: To double our fixed customer base and to double our mobile customer base from where we're at today.
Operator: And the third question, will you consider the launch of DigiPortugal a success? Is it meeting your expectations? Look, it's a difficult question and I think on a personal note, so to say that it's not successful is wrong because we operate, we have customers on the network, the customers are using the service and we work hard on a daily basis to provide the service. To say that it is very successful is difficult, again, it's very subjective. I think time will show how successful we are and once again, we are certainly committed to the markets, to the customers on a very long-term basis and our interest is to continue to evolve our coverage, the quality of our services, the number of users and we will do our best to do so.
Kim Bob: And we'll meet again mid August discussing the second quarter results.
Speaker Change: <unk> come close to them to.
Kim Bob: Thank you very much and see you soon.
Speaker Change: To come close to a black position.
Speaker Change: This is just that our estimation as we speak.
Speaker Change: Uh huh.
Speaker Change: What do you mean novel is not commercially active and as students decreased prices of novel to align them with D. G, suggesting youre still actively managing the brand is the long term plan to rebrand novel into D. G. It was a question from Tony It was a it was a come back to a previous question no what I mean, I mean the falling.
Speaker Change: Oh D G and novel continues to operate as two Standalone brands and we are in an exercise to migrate normal customers to <unk> network.
Speaker Change: As soon as they make great. They are.
Operator: Another question from Boyan, Romania. Are you happy with the proposed remedies from the regulator with regards to Telekom Romania? Yes, the remedies were proposed by us to be very exact from the procedural point of view.
Speaker Change: They comfortable D J take it they they they stopped using did you say that they see and they benefit from did you sell prices.
Speaker Change: What I meant to say and when I say that nobody's not commercially active we are not focusing on doing sales under the novel brand. We are focusing to do sales under the major brands.
Operator: They were reviewed by the regulator and they are now subject to market test and comments from the market participants. So since basically they were proposed by us, they were offered by us, we certainly agree with the remedies.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Oh, a question a follow up question from Kim Bob.
Operator: Thank you.
Speaker Change: How many homes do you want to cover with five but long term in Spain.
Operator: Okay, a question from Russell Waller. Hi, can you give us an update on the fiber rollout in Portugal, please? Is the goal still for 50% coverage by the end of the year?
Speaker Change: I think I mentioned this earlier there is no target, we certainly continue leading networks in the next two or three years.
Speaker Change: We have to assess.
Operator: Does the 50% target include any wholesale deals? Yes, we maintain the intention announced also during our last call for 50% country coverage by the end of the year, so no changes there. And simply no, this figure does not include any wholesale deal, so it's all our effort.
Speaker Change: This as we go forward once again, an important element to that.
Speaker Change: He's all can be our ability to sign causing these it's not it won't be interested to go to 100% sustained is a question on the call when we do that.
Speaker Change: So we'll have to we'll have to see if you have rental days.
Speaker Change: And the second question, you mentioned Spanish margins to improve towards the end of the year what was that at least what I think two things are driving golf's finished margins on one hand, it's the growth in customers, which is always helpful and the second we as we were discussing on previous calls we are.
Operator: How many homes pass do you have now in Spain and when do you plan to sell next tranche to Macquarie? We have built ourselves more than 12.5 million homes in Spain to date. We deliver homes to Macquarie continuously as we speak, so this is the process which will continue for the next one year and a half or so, so this is something that is ongoing. And when we say that it's a continuous process, it's a continuous process from the deal that we signed last year involving 6 million homes out of 12.5 that we built in total by now.
Speaker Change: Migrating from Nvme.
Speaker Change: Vienna, two MMO type of relationship with Telefonica and it has slightly different.
Economics also which also helps our margin.
Speaker Change: Extended.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Yeah, all sorts of fossil group.
Speaker Change: Well I think we hit the full hour was the presentation of questions.
Operator: A question from Russell Waller. Is the intention still to get to 100% fiber coverage and over what time scale, what percent of that will be wholesale, do you think, please? I believe the question refers to Portugal.
Speaker Change: And the question is stopped.
So we will wait on the line for a minute or two.
Speaker Change: And if there'll be no questions no further questions, we will close the line.
Operator: I think long-term the answer is yes. We still intend to cover meaningfully more or less the entire country. I refer to Portugal. However, it's very difficult for me to say now how soon or how quickly we'll do it.
Operator: So I'd rather defer this question to some later time.
Operator: Ganesh. How many homes fast we expect to build in Spain this year? I think the speed of rolling out the networks is more or less constant for us and it centred around 2 million plus homes as we speak.
Speaker Change: Yeah. So.
Speaker Change: Then I think once again a big thank you for all of you. Thank you for joining thank you for listening and participating.
Speaker Change: And we'll meet again mid August discussing the second quarter results.
Operator: So this is the number. I hope it's helpful.
Speaker Change: Thank you very much and see you soon.
Operator: Andrew Webb, how did your Q1 Portuguese results compare to your expectations? Yeah, once again, it's... I don't know, it's a complicated answer. stressed ourselves by the... that I think it was a good launch.
Speaker Change: The recording has stopped.
Operator: How is the repricing of the novel customer base going? Well, we are migrating the novel customers to DigiNetwork. Along with this, there is also repricing, so it's an ongoing process and it goes well. I will not tell you numbers. We will rather tell you when the process is finished. But I think it's going pretty well, pretty good, and we have no surprises there.
Operator: are you on track with Portuguese FTTH rollout plan to cover 50% of premises by their end? The answer is yes.
Operator: Are you still considering wholesale agreements for Portuguese fixed line access in Portugal? We always consider wholesale agreements in all markets where we operate, so we are very much open to such opportunities, but so far there were no possibility to access our competitors' network at an affordable price.
Operator: A question from Rassel Waller, just to clarify, you said Belgium is not consolidated, but the 750 million of CAPEX guidance includes Belgium, how do you reconcile those two statements? Thank you.
Operator: Also, does the 750 million euro include the Romania or Portugal M&A costs? Oh... and the M&A that we expect in Romania. We don't expect any M&A in Portugal for this year. What you mentioned is correct. I did say that Belgium is not consolidated, but I also did say that €750 million of CAPEX is inclusive of Belgium. If you looked at our numbers a bit earlier, we have spent CAPEX of €170 million in all markets, excluding Belgium in the first quarter. Doing a simple arithmetic and annualization gives you €680 million total CAPEX for the year. Again, I'm not saying this is the number and it's just four times, but there's plenty of room for us also to support the Belgian operations in this number.
Operator: I hope this is helpful. Your observations were correct. Thank you for the question.
Operator: Um A question from Cristian Caricas, how do you see the ARPU in Portugal by the end of the year and going forward? You mentioned in the last call that you expect it will decrease as novel migration continues. Thank you. So yes, the overall dynamic, the overall strategy is the same, there are no changes. So from this point of view, there will be a decline in ARPU, which we... No, we expect or intend to compensate with the increase in RGUs. However, it's difficult for me to comment on the exact levels as we have not decided the full calendar and how and the speed of the conversion.
Operator: A question from Ines Pinto Miguel, hello, thank you for the presentation, I have a few questions on the Portuguese presence.
Operator: What are your takes on the first full trimester of the operations in Portugal? And second, what was the impact of the blackout on April 28th? Yeah, well, thank you. I think the first question was addressed.
Operator: I'm not sure I should come back, but I would say everything we have in Portugal is a work in progress. And once again, we are extremely grateful to our customers for joining our network. We're very grateful for being first users and trusting us and also using our services.
Operator: For the second question, yes, it was an unfortunate event, which affected both us and most of our competitors, either fully or partially, particularly in our case. we were hit also by the blackout and well for a few hours our operations were available throughout an important part half or more than half of the network in the second part of the blackout and for a good number of hours after our network was down as we were busy bringing it back but finally the network is back and we have seen all our customers also coming back and once again it's another big thank you for the patience and for trusting our services but yes it was a one-off experience i think both for us but also for our competitors and we sincerely hope the energy sector will be more resilient and it doesn't happen again Question from Jeremy Ben Natan, are you still committed to 50% fixed coverage in Portugal by the end of 2025 and rolling out to 100% in the future?
Operator: I think we did mention this a couple of times already and the answer is yes and yes.
Operator: Um a comeback from E-Nash. I didn't understand your early answer. The RGU of the first quarter only have Digi. It doesn't have the Novo clients included. No, you should read the answer differently. The RGU numbers include both Novo and Digi customers because they are Digi group customers overall.
Operator: What I wanted to say and I'm just clarifying is that the increase or the additions in the first quarter come from Digi network because Digi network is commercially active and Novo is not.
Operator: A question from Rohan Sankhla. Do you plan to build 100% of Spain in FCPH Homes Passed? If not, how do you decide on which locations, what percent of total Spain to build?
Operator: Yeah, it's a tough one. I'm not sure we intend to build 100% of Spain. So, Spain has a vast and complex geography. It's a big country. We are very happy with the build-out that we achieved so far, the 12.5 million homes. We're certainly not stopping here, but we will consider this as we go forward in the next two or three years. Eventually, how big the network is and what the network coverage should be. When we build the network, we try also to assess the number of converged users that we have on our combined fixed and mobile network.
Operator: And I think this is by far the most important criteria for us to expand the network.
Operator: A question from Dan Sica, do you have any target for expansion of 5G coverage in Romania? Not really, we cover more than half of Romania with 5G services. We will continue increasing this coverage both this year and next year, but we are not committed to a number.
Operator: Eventually we will announce when we build it.
Operator: Mariusz Kisz, how many users do you need for a break-even in Portugal? mmm, love it Um, I think, uh... Oh, so... I'm not sure we think now in users, but, well, I think, sorry, sorry, sorry, apology. We probably need... to come close to a black position. This is just a rough estimation as we speak.
Operator: uh What do you mean Novo is not commercially active? I understood that you decreased prices at Novo to align them with Digi, suggesting you are still actively managing the brand.
Operator: Is the long-term plan to rebrand Novo into Digi? It was a question from Anton, it was a comeback to a previous question. No, what I mean, I mean the following. Digi and Novo continue to operate as two standalone brands and we are in an exercise to migrate Novo's customers to Digi network and as soon as they migrate, they come to Digi, they start using Digi services and they benefit from Digi's prices.
Operator: That's what I meant to say and when I say that Novo is not commercially active, we are not focusing on doing sales under the Novo brand, we are focusing to do sales under the Digi brand.
Operator: So question, follow-up question from Kerbal, how many homes do you want to cover with fiber long-term in Spain? I think I mentioned this earlier, there is no target. We'll certainly continue building networks in the next two or three years. We'll have to assess this as we go forward. Once again, an important element to that is or can be our ability to sign wholesale deals. It's not that we're not interested to go to 100% of Spain, it's a question of how do we do that.
Operator: So we'll have to think and we'll have to address that.
Operator: And the second question, you mentioned Spanish margins will improve towards the end of the year. What will drive this? Well, I think two things are driving our Spanish margins. On one hand, it's the growth in customers, which is always helpful. And the second, as we were discussing on our previous calls, we are migrating from an MVNO to MNO type of relationship with Telefonica, and it has slightly different economics also which also helps our margin to a certain extent.
Operator: Yeah, so far, so good. I think we have a full hour with the presentation and questions.
Operator: And the questions stop.
Operator: We will wait on the line for a minute or two, and if there will be no further questions, we will close the line.
Operator: Yeah, so then I think, once again, a big thank you for all of you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening and participating.
Operator: And we'll meet again, mid-August, discussing the second quarter results. Thank you very much and see you soon.