Q2 2025 Bezeq Israel Telecom Earnings Call

Speaker #1: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on Bezeq 2025 second quarter earnings call. I'm Yochai Benita, CFO of the Bezeq Group. Joining us from the senior management team today, we have Mr. Tomer Raved, Bezeq's chairman, Mr. Nir David, Bezeq's fixed-line CEO, and Mr. Ilan Sigal, CEO of Telephone and Youth.

Speaker #1: Before we start the call, I would like to direct your attention to the safe harbor statement on flight of our presentation. Which also applies to any statement made during today's call.

Speaker #1: We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded.

Speaker #2: This meeting is being recorded.

Speaker #1: Recording the presentation of our results, we will have a Q&A session. With that said, let me now turn the call over to Tomer for his opening remarks.

Speaker #1: After his introduction, I will continue the presentation of our group's financial highlights, followed by Nir, who will discuss Bezeq's fixed-line results, and Ilan, who will cover the results from Telephone and Youth.

Speaker #1: I will conclude the presentation with Bezeq International Rising.

Speaker #3: Thank you, Yochai, and good ning, good afternoon, everyone. And welcome. Let's start on the slide three. We had another busy quarter with excellent results and significant progress in our group strategy.

Speaker #3: It accelerated momentum across all our growth engines, including fiber, 5G, and IPTV-SES. A key indicator to our successful quarter is the mid-single-digit growth in output across all services.

Speaker #3: Which led to 3% growth in core revenues, and to double-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA, and the net adjusted net profit, which also really tested the right SES due to the partner TV deal.

Speaker #3: The group continues to report growth in total broadband retail subscribers, driven by accelerated fiber deployment, enhanced customer value, and our ability to offer bundled services at YES.

Speaker #3: The infrastructure revolution led by the group positions the Israeli economy at a very high level of resilience and readiness for the AI era, where we at the group serve as an enabler and an adopter and also a ider of AI services.

Speaker #3: As part of the group's core strategy, we will continue to invest and identify future growth engines. Most recently, we announced we are reviewing a couple of potential synergistic acquisitions.

Speaker #3: The acquisition of Accelera Telecom and Hotmobile. In parallel, regulation in Israel continues to evolve and is gradually becoming more and more consistent with global trends.

Speaker #3: In addition to recent formal progress, in the process to remove structural separation, and following the completion of the corporate switch-off reform, earlier this year, in the MOC, also published a wholesale tariff hearing, which marks an important and historical milestone given the suggestion to gradually remove most of the wholesale tariff supervision in Israel, following a two-year transition period.

Speaker #3: It reflects the regulator's recognition that the market is competitive and mature enough for such a move, with the understanding that Israeli consumers will continue to benefit from advanced services at competitive prices.

Speaker #3: Last week, we once again revised our 2025 outlook upwards, now expecting adjusted EBITDA of 3.85 billion and adjusted net profit of 1.45 billion. Moving to the next slide, our tech and business roadmap is on track to reach our mid-term KPI targets, including the completion of fiber deployments this year and also reaching at least 40% take-up in the mid-term.

Speaker #3: Continuing our consistent output growth across all verticals and leveraging our leading position in 5G and TV. On slide five, you can see a good snapshot of our financial highlights for this quarter, both in top line as well as in strong profitability and free cash flow metrics.

Speaker #3: We are very priud of our achievements and of our consistent ability to deliver on bottom line results. Turning to slide six, let me point out that you can really see how even in a year with volatile geopolitical situation, our core business continues to perform and outperform.

Speaker #3: Total fiber subs as of today reach 924,000, with over 2.8 million home pass. 5G subs reach 1.3 million, and output grew approximately 5%. Yes, output from subscribers, which includes TV and fiber, was up 3% and reached 189 checkers.

Speaker #3: I will now turn the call over to Yochai, who will elaborate further on the group results.

Speaker #1: Thank you, Tomer. Moving to slide seven, where we show a 3.1% increase in core revenues due to higher core revenues from all key group segments.

Speaker #1: Adjusted EBITDA grew 11.3% and adjusted net profit grew 46% due to the increase in the valuation of yes. Turning to the next slide, we show the half-field trends, which were similar to Q2 in revenues and profitability.

Speaker #1: Free cash flow was impacted by Bezeq's ixed-line tax assessment, paid in the first half of 2025, and a tax refund received in the corresponding period.

Speaker #1: Moving to the next slide, we show our operating expenses. Salary expenses decreased 5.5% due to the sale of Bezeq Online, and it deconsolidated as of Q2 2025.

Speaker #1: We recorded decreases in operating expenses and depreciation expenses, mainly due to the change in the valuation of yes. The next slide shows our quarterly operational metrics.

Speaker #1: Broadband retail output continued to grow in addition. We recorded increases in telephone output as well as in yes output year over year due to fiber growth.

Speaker #1: Slide 11 highlights our balanced capital structure with net debt at 4.9 billion shekels, and a coverage ratio of 1.5 times. We remain committed to maintaining our high credit rating.

Speaker #1: Moving to the next slide, in accordance with our 80% dividend payout policy, the board of directors recommended the distribution of 5803 million shekels or 21 megawatts per share reflecting 50% growth in the dividend per share.

Speaker #1: Moving to the next slide, we recently upgraded group's guidance for 2025 for the second time this year. We are now focusing adjusted EBITDA of 3.85 billion shekels, and adjusted net profit of 1.45 billion shekels.

Speaker #1: I will now turn the call over to Nir, who will share more detailed results from our fixed-line operations.

Speaker #3: Thank you, Yochai. I'm very proud for this quarter performance. Thanks to our nationwide advanced network and the successful implementation of our strategy. Turning to slide 14, fixed-line core revenue increased 4.5% to 979,000,000 shekels, driven by an increase across all core revenue items.

Speaker #3: Broadband retail fiber customers reached 592,000 today, and output rose 5.4% year over year to 136 shekels. On the following slide, we show Q2 financial highlights, with adjusted net profit down 8.1% to 260,000,000 shekels, mainly due to higher financial expenses resulting from the impact of the dollar-shekel exchange rate on hedging transactions.

Speaker #3: Three, cash flow flow was up 20%, mainly due to timing differences in working capital. Turning to the next slide, we show continued fiber deployment reaching over 2.8 million homes pass, with over 924,000 active subscribers in our fiber networks today, representing 63% of total broadband subscribers and resulting in a take-up of take-up rate of 33%.

Speaker #3: Moving to the next slide, we show the take-up trend Q2 showed 29,000 retail fiber nets and 15,000 wholesale fiber nets. Turning to the next slide, broadband revenues were up 2.8 despite the decrease in the wholesale tariffs from using out passive network.

Speaker #3: Transmission and data revenues grew 5.5% to 39,000,000 shekels, and other revenues grew 14% due to higher revenues from infrastructure projects. With that, I will now turn the call to Ilan to discuss telephone and yes.

Speaker #1: Thank you, Nir. Moving to slide 19, Bezeq posted 3.7% growth in service revenues, reaching 361,000,000 shekels, driven by continued growth in output and post-pay subscribers.

Speaker #1: Including 5G subscriber plans, despite the impact on roaming revenues in June due to the war with Iran. 5G post-pay subscriber plans grew by 39,000, reaching 1.33 million subscribers today.

Speaker #1: 5G max subscribers reached 80,000 today, and we raised our estimated and are now expecting to reach 150,000 5G max scribers by the end of the year.

Speaker #1: This is another great example of telephone's leadership position and technological advancement, which provides real added value to our customers. Moving to the next slide, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit were impacted by the war with Iran.

Speaker #1: As well as the increase in frequency fees resulting from the termination of the MOC discount period, free cash flow was up 59%, reaching 43 million shekels.

Speaker #1: Mainly due to timing differences in working capital. Moving to the next slide, we show 5G post-pay subscriber plans reaching over 1.3 million subscribers, as of today.

Speaker #1: Representing 58% of post-pay scribers. And Q2 service revenues showing consistent growth over the last few years. The next slide shows Q2 key operational metrics.

Speaker #1: As seen, we recorded an additional increase in post-pay subscribers; output rose 4.5% for two shekels year over year. Turning to yes, on slide 23, first is truly outperforming in the past few quarters.

Speaker #1: With innovation premium content enhanced focus on free cash flow as most of the migration from satellite is near to completion. You can see all of this in the results and more to come more to come.

Speaker #1: Revenues increased 1.3% to 320,000,000 shekels, due to higher revenues from the TV fiber bundle. Before my adjusted EBITDA rose 30% to 56,000,000 shekels, driven by higher revenues and streamlining of expenses.

Speaker #1: Total TV subscribers increasing by 1,000 this quarter, representing the first quarterly increase in total subscribers since Q1 2023. We focused quarterly growth with 9,000 net fiber subscriber ads, reaching 100,000 as of today.

Speaker #1: Moving to the next slide, before my adjusted net profit was down 69% due to higher financial expenses resulting from a decrease in the value of hedging transition due to a decline in US dollar exchange rate.

Speaker #1: On the next slide, I would like to highlight the five shekel year over year growth in output from subscribers. Due higher revenues from fiber plans.

Speaker #1: We showed continued growth in IP subscribers reaching 483,000 today. Representing 86% of total subscribers. With that, let me now turn the call back to Yochai.

Speaker #1: Thank you, Ilan. Moving to Bezeq International, on slide 26, business revenues grew 6.4% mainly due to higher revenues from cloud activities. The sale of business equipment and international telephone services.

Speaker #1: Adjusted EBITDA was down mainly due to lower revenue from consumers. We are continuing with our streamlining plan, including the implementation of the employee retirement agreement for the years 2025 through 2027.

Speaker #1: With that, I will open the Q&A session. If you would like to ask a estion, please raise your hand virtually, and as you hear your name, please be sure to unmute your microphone and ask your question.

Speaker #1: For the benefit of the people in the room, please introduce yourself and share the name of the company you represent. We will address questions as we see the hands raised.

Speaker #1: I will now pass to Paul for questions.

Speaker #4: Okay. Hi.

Speaker #5: Yeah, hi. Chris Reimer from Barclays. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on the strong results, also. I was wondering if we could talk about the Accelera proposed acquisition and if you can talk about how you see the potential in that asset, and are you acquiring also a customer base, or is it just the asset?

Speaker #3: Yes. So I would ask that briefly. First, we submitted a non-binding LOI for a potential acquisition as reported. We started the initial diligence, so this is very preliminary stage.

Speaker #3: So I'm not going to ment on the transaction, but I will mention a comment on the strategy and the trends. As previously mentioned, and I think we talked this, and this is a great question.

Speaker #3: Today, most of the international cables from Europe to Asia go through the Suez Canal. Bezeq fixed-line recently completed a project as a subcontractor for Google to lay down the cable from Europe to Asia through Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Speaker #3: Given the regional developments and given the needs for redundancy for all the global hyperscalers, we see a very good, very big opportunity across data needs and capacity for additional terrestrial cables.

Speaker #3: And Israel sits geographically at the best intersection for these types of cables. And we're probably going to see more and more, and we expect to be a player.

Speaker #3: In that, potential upside, but this is a pretty early date. But at the context of how we see this market evolve, given the need for redundancy in the regions.

Speaker #5: Okay. Regarding salaries, you mentioned the decrease had to do with the disposal of the Bezeq Online unit. But going forward, considering you almost, well, you've basically reached your rollout on the fiber, correct me if 'm wrong there, but how should we look at wages going forward, considering the decrease in spend on the infrastructure as well as the ongoing employee agreements?

Speaker #3: So we have collective union agreements across the boards. Across the different subsidiaries, we this year and we talked this, we have the rights under the current agreements with the fixed-line union to let up to 300 people retire.

Speaker #3: We will use a significant amount of these people that we reach the end of the fiber projects. Which have both impacts on headcount and non-headcount capacity, given we finished the loyment.

Speaker #3: So it will have some significant impact on headcount cost. The fixed-line business, entering next year, so this year, Q4, you'll see a provision cash flow impact positive on next year, negative positive.

Speaker #3: And on one hand, on the other hand, at the international business, as Yochai mentioned, we have a new agreement to be able to retire up to 150 people in the next two to three years.

Speaker #3: There's also something that would impact wages in the coming year or so.

Speaker #5: Great. Thanks. That's helpful. That's it for me.

Speaker #1: Okay. Thank you. Next question from David Kaplan from Sagot. Hi, David.

Speaker #6: Hi, everyone. How are you? Sorry about that. I have a couple of quick questions. The first one is, when I look at the results from this quarter and if we strip out the impact of the revaluations of yes, there wasn't actually a great deal of growth in EBITDA.

Speaker #6: So how should we think about the growth of Bezeq going forward, keeping in mind that Bezeq while overall is seeing subscriber growth as a group, we're seeing some cannibalization of that user or that's of those subscribers by staying on the television side and by yes, on the broadband side, from its higher revenue cousins.

Speaker #6: So to speak. That's my first question.

Speaker #3: So I ink it's very straightforward. Our EBITDA this quarter without the one-off was as expected. Flat-ish, but if you look at the different categories of the businesses between Bezeq fixed-line yes, predominantly you've seen growth in EBITDA, including the Saudi accounting impacts.

Speaker #3: You see some softness at telephone given roaming and spectrum fees comparing to previous quarter last year. So you that's very easy to explain. But we this is very in line with our expectations.

Speaker #3: And we continue to expect at least 2% figure in our going forward EBITDA, exactly as we communicated. And you see the different KPIs are actually above expectations.

Speaker #3: So, we’re very happy with these results. Even putting aside these one-offs, yes alone, excluding all these accounting, we grew 30% in EBITDA this quarter. Okay.

Speaker #3: Without all these accounting impacts. So that's fixed to some of the trends in the business.

Speaker #6: Okay. Bezeq International, we saw a drop in revenue versus the previous quarter. What was that related to?

Speaker #3: Bezeq International actually grew its core revenues significantly this quarter. Compared to previous, and you an.

Speaker #1: Core revenue in Bezeq International increased by 14 million shekels. Versus the previous versus the parallel quarter.

Speaker #3: Correct. 6% growth.

Speaker #1: Yeah.

Speaker #6: But not versus the previous quarter.

Speaker #1: You lost 10 million shekels.

Speaker #3: Correct. You will continue to see legacy going down, and you have some of the impact on the projects and integration business timing. But overall, you will continue to see significant growth, in the mid to high single-digit range, in the core venue aspect of that.

Speaker #3: But profitability will still go down in the transition period, given you're losing the legacy ISP business, which is non-core. And as you can see, core revenue is growing.

Speaker #3: And this is timing definitely impacts the time of year, impacts this business, given the large projects. But profitability will go down, given the transition we talked about, or transformation we talked about.

Speaker #6: Okay. Just a quick follow-up on the question that Chris asked about the cable business. You mentioned the data center growth or potential data center growth in Israel.

Speaker #6: Do you see Bezeq being a player on the infrastructure side of that, or more as a service provider? In transmission.

Speaker #3: We will continue be a leading infrastructure player on connectivity. Both terrestrial and hopefully also international. At this point, we are a big player in the colocation data center business.

Speaker #3: But in the hyperscaler business, we're currently not a player.

Speaker #6: Okay. Great. And my last question, there were the financing expenses were higher this quarter. I think I had something to do with hedging of the dollar.

Speaker #6: Can you explain how that impacts or is going to impact CapEx or finance going forward?

Speaker #3: Sure. So as part of the group's hedging policy, part of the companies in the groups are hedging against the change in the Israeli shekel versus the dollar.

Speaker #3: This quarter, we saw the Israeli shekel strengthening versus the US dollar. So we had to reevaluate these transactions, and it resulted in approximately 50 million shekel loss.

Speaker #3: Which was all recorded in this quarter. So going ahead, I would assume that this kind of impact will not be seen in the coming quarters.

Speaker #6: And the strategy behind that, though, does it have an impact on CapEx in any way, share performance?

Speaker #1: Yeah. So it's to hedge both CapEx and both operational expenses. Part of the expenses on the group level are exposed to the US dollar.

Speaker #1: And we want to mitigate this risk.

Speaker #6: Great. Thanks very much.

Speaker #1: Thank you. Thank you. Next question from Andre from UBS.

Speaker #7: Hi. Thanks for the presentation. Two questions for me, please. One is on the other transaction that we haven't spoken about yet. So your bid for the mobile assets of Holt.

Speaker #7: I was wondering what kind of process is there, and is it somewhat related, at least in terms of who gets to decide on the final outcome of this, to the removal of the structural separation?

Speaker #7: And I guess where I'm coming from is in the past, we haven't been used to too many positive regulatory events around Bezeq. So these two events could be potentially both very positive.

Speaker #7: So will it even be I ink I guess where I'm coming from, will it even be allowed to happen? At the same time, because the timeline kind of potentially coincides.

Speaker #7: So that's one question. And then the second question would be around the remainder of the assets, primarily the fixed asset. I was just wondering should that, for example, be acquired in the case of a full exit of LTs from Israel?

Speaker #7: Should that be acquired by a private equity? Is there a risk you think to the overall competitive dynamics on the fixed side? Assuming mobile can improve, but is there some kind of risk to the fixed side of it there?

Speaker #7: Maybe a new entrant coming in or using that is not a concern at . Thank ou.

Speaker #3: The problem is that you know the market too well. First, thank you for the questions. One, important comment for specifically addressing. You mentioned about regulatory news I would counter that.

Speaker #3: Israel has been with relatively volatile regulatory environment in the previous decade. In the past four to five years, we've seen if not all good news, but more constructive and rational regulatory decisions, even with four different governments and five different ministers.

Speaker #3: Very constructive and adopting more and more reforms or consistent with European approach. They removed structural separation with the infrastructure and ISP. We saw the copper switch-off reform.

Speaker #3: We saw the wholesale hearing. We shared pros and cons, but it's more consistent with regulatory approach in Europe. So overall, you see constructive, rational, and not bad good news, but constructive ones.

Speaker #3: So just general comments for the reflecting on the past five years, maybe not 15 years, but five years. Specific to your estion, our thesis running a process, right, to sell either Israeli assets as part of that we submitted an indication of interest to join the process.

Speaker #3: There are in a process. There are no timelines yet for well, first round bids, if you will. But we basically submitted an interest and also evaluation at 2 billion shekels.

Speaker #3: For the mobile unit only, on behalf of telephone, it has nothing to do with structural separation. And we will update the market if there are anything to update at this point.

Speaker #3: They are in a process. We have to join the process. And we are standing still. The rationale for that and the synergies, I think, are obvious, but we think this will benefit significantly the mobile market in Israel.

Speaker #3: The infrastructure level investment. And the ranking of Israel in the mobile and cellular industry in terms mobile speeds and network efficiency nationwide. Structural separation, to your question, we did update the market on the progress and what the MOCs formally communicating.

Speaker #3: In April, they announced they will conclude their review and make a decision this way or other by end of this year. Recently, they also announced they hired an economic advisor and also some basically announced some sort of RFI to the market as part of the formal process.

Speaker #3: So we see its progressing. In a very formal way, and we hope to hear news in Q4 around that topic. The structural separation, the focus in Bezeq fixed-line and yes, less relevant to the other subsidiaries in business at this point.

Speaker #7: Thank you, Tomer. If I may just, do you have any views on potential future of the fixed market if the fixed asset is exited as well?

Speaker #3: Well, I don't think I forgot to answer this point. Sorry. So I don't think the change in ownership, changes the market dynamics, I do think in Europe in the past few years, the change in ownership benefited competition and level of investment and got this market a lot better.

Speaker #3: In any shape or form, we are proud to be one of the leaders but we're not alone. And this market evolved. Thanks to this change in ownership in Bezeq and partner and Celcom, coming up IBC and probably hot follows, I think it's only too good to the market to have a rational shareholders with long-term views.

Speaker #7: Thank you. And if one quick follow-up, if I may on the mobile side, because I think part of your CapEx plans, I think you've ioned for the next several years is just the rollout of 5G where Israel may be just like Europe may be a bit behind some of the other economies that you would benchmark to.

Speaker #7: So like the North America, Asia, Middle East, and economies in the Gulf. And then so my question is basically, is the maybe under investment angle part of the rationale of even thinking of doing consolidation in Israel currently?

Speaker #3: Look, I think the outputs in Israel in mobile are relatively low compared to the world and low to begin with. And I think there's lot of upside there, and we talked about that in the context of 5G and telephone strategy.

Speaker #3: I think on a group level, we communicated a reduction in CapEx going forward. That comes from the end of fiber rollout. It does not come from lower CapEx to the cellular business.

Speaker #3: That will remain elevated given we expect to deploy more and invest more. As part of our long-term plan, never guided for reduced CapEx on the cellular business.

Speaker #3: But on a group level, we do expect to go from the 20% CapEx to say level down to the 16 to 18%. We have been talking about it for the past year.

Speaker #7: Clear. Thank you y much, Tomer.

Speaker #1: Thank you. Next questions we have is from Sihi from City. Hi, Sihi.

Speaker #8: Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, please. And both of them are relating to your views on your mid-term guidance.

Speaker #8: Hopefully, different aspects. The first one is, I'm ondering if you can talk about the upselling opportunities that you saw in Israel on both 5G and output and the fiber.

Speaker #8: Because if I look at the growth rate of your output, in both fixed and mobile, it seems that you could be more than comfortable to reach the point of your guidance.

Speaker #8: So I'm ondering if we look at the upselling opportunity. Do you feel that your original it is according to original plan or it's actually a better than you expected?

Speaker #8: And my second question is on the mid-term EBITDA CAGR. You talk about that you expect to grow at 2%. But considering that the top line pressure is going to phase out on international and then you have the cost-saving coming through, and just wondering what you think about this 2% CAGR.

Speaker #8: Do you think that is conservative as well? Thank ou.

Speaker #3: I'll start at the high level and briefly guide to add. First, on the EBITDA point, yeah, we expect at least 2% CAGR obviously, we still have the legacy high-margin revenue declining, which still 5-plus percent of total gap revenues.

Speaker #3: Which will still impact EBITDA. But you're right that with the phasing out of fiber deployment, and some of the headcount reduction we will see better OPEX profile.

Speaker #3: We expect hopefully get 2% or more than 2% in the coming years. But we have to take into account this legacy revenue reduction that will be with us in the next two to three years.

Speaker #3: Secondly, to your question on output in general, I think you see across the board that our playbook does not come from raising prices generally speaking.

Speaker #3: It comes from adding value to customers. And most of the output growth on the fiber business came from migration from copper to fiber, which will continue over the next two years.

Speaker #3: And then the next evolution of that is multi-gig. Two and a half percent gig, five gig. Which contribute in addition other value-add services and I think it's the same on the mobile business.

Speaker #3: People are willing to pay more for 5G. But Kevin, if you have anything else to add on that.

Speaker #1: No, I can add that the 45 to 50 shekels on output based on the transformation from 4G to 5G and now from 5G to 5G Max.

Speaker #1: So we are now on 46. And we have a guidance from 45 to 50. So we are on track. We see now with the we'll see how the transmission will go from 5G to 5G Max.

Speaker #1: And we'll we'll see if this this index 45 to 50 is right. But now, as we see, this is the right plan for us.

Speaker #1: 45 to 50.

Speaker #8: That's clear. Thank ou.

Speaker #1: Okay. So if there are no further questions at this time, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to join us today.

Speaker #1: Should you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our investor relations department. We look forward to speaking to you on the third quarter 2025 earnings call.

Speaker #1: Thank you.