Earnings call transcript: Proximus Q2 2025 sees modest EBITDA growth

Proximus NV (market cap: €2.8B) reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2025, showcasing a slight increase in Group EBITDA and growth in domestic service revenue. The company, currently undervalued according to InvestingPro Fair Value metrics, has demonstrated strong market performance with a 49.31% year-to-date return. Despite facing challenges in its global segment, the company remains optimistic, raising its EBITDA guidance for the domestic market. Proximus continues to navigate a competitive mobile landscape and a shifting communication market while maintaining an attractive 5.66% dividend yield.

Key Takeaways

• Group EBITDA increased by 1.2% year-over-year to €491 million.
• Domestic service revenue rose by 1.6%, while domestic EBITDA grew by 1.9%.
• Global segment EBITDA declined by 5.4%.
• Proximus updated its 2025 Group EBITDA guidance to a growth of up to 1%.
• Fiber coverage has expanded to over 45% of Belgian homes.

Company Performance

Proximus demonstrated resilience in the face of intense market competition, particularly in the mobile sector. The company’s domestic operations showed positive momentum, with growth in both service revenue and EBITDA. However, the global segment faced headwinds, primarily due to a decline in traditional messaging services. Proximus continues to focus on expanding its fiber network and enhancing its 5G capabilities to maintain its competitive edge.

Financial Highlights

• Group EBITDA: €491 million, up 1.2% YoY
• Domestic service revenue: Increased by 1.6%
• Domestic EBITDA: Rose by 1.9%
• Global segment EBITDA: Declined by 5.4%
• CapEx for the first half: €542 million
• Organic free cash flow in H1: Negative €5 million (improved from the previous year)

Outlook & Guidance

Proximus has revised its 2025 guidance, anticipating up to 1% growth in Group EBITDA and up to 2% growth in domestic EBITDA. Trading at an attractive P/E ratio of 4.91, the company maintains a solid financial position. The global segment is expected to see a decline of 5-10%. The company is also focusing on divesting €600 million in non-core assets by 2027, while continuing negotiations for fiber network collaborations. InvestingPro analysis reveals the company maintains a "GOOD" overall financial health score of 2.8, suggesting resilience in its strategic initiatives.

Executive Commentary

Jan, an executive at Proximus, emphasized the importance of network leadership as a strategic priority. Jim Castela, Residential Lead, highlighted the company’s strategy of balancing volume and value in its market approach. Marc Riek, Group CFO, expressed confidence in capturing market shifts in communication channels.

Risks and Challenges

• Intense competition in the mobile market could pressure margins.
• The decline in traditional messaging services poses a challenge for the global segment.
• The company’s ability to execute its fiber expansion plans remains critical.
• Macroeconomic pressures could impact consumer spending and investment capacity.
• Regulatory changes in telecommunications could affect operational strategies.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the challenges faced by the global segment, particularly the decline in SMS services. Proximus reaffirmed its belief in the global business strategy and discussed ongoing fiber network collaborations with Orange Belgium. Additionally, the company addressed questions on working capital and CapEx expectations, emphasizing its commitment to strategic investments.

Proximus continues to adapt to a dynamic market environment, leveraging its technological advancements and strategic partnerships to drive growth and maintain its competitive position.

Full transcript - Proximus NV (PROX) Q2 2025:

George, Conference Coordinator: Hello, and welcome to the Proximus Q2 twenty twenty five Analyst Conference Call. My name is George, I’ll be coordinator of today’s event. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Of the call, your lines will be in a listen only mode. However, you have the opportunity to ask questions towards the end of the presentation.

I’d like to turn the call over to your host today, Ms. Nancy Gozin, Investor Relations lead, to begin today’s conference. Please go ahead.

Nancy Gozin, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus: Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining this Proximus Results Webcast. We will start with our presentation and as usual, we will address all your questions after that. The presenters of today are the CEO, Atintrim, Ivan Van Akuleen to Group CFO, Marc Riek.

And for the Q and A, we are joined by the Residential Lead, Jim Castela by Renaud Tilmans for the BTB Talcopart and by the Corporate Affairs Lead, Ben Apple. They will be taking your questions in a moment, but first hand it over to Jan to take you through the highlights for today. Jan, please go ahead.

Jan, Executive, Proximus: Thank you, Nancy. Good day, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. Stan Deniz, the new Proximus Group CEO, will be joining us as of September 1 and will be your host for the next round. But for today, I’ll be taking you through the main takeaways from the second quarter, after which Marc will take over for a deeper dive.

As you have all seen in our published report this morning, Proximus continued its robust domestic performance despite the intense competition. This is reflected in another strong financial quarter with both domestic service revenue and EBITDA growing year over year. Network leadership remains a key pillar of our strategy with five gs coverage now above 80% and fiber industry covering more than 45% of the Belgian homes and businesses. Regarding the fiber negotiations, we are pleased to announce that we have signed an MOU with Orange Belgium, covering a collaboration on fiber in Wallonia and the use of the HFC network in rural zones. For Frauners, significant progress was made during the second quarter, bringing us closer to the next step.

Regarding our Global segment, the part of our business faced accelerated headwinds in the CPaaS market besides integration challenges that are impacting the go to market. This was only partially compensated by a successful delivery of OpEx synergies. As a last point, thanks to the expected proceeds of the sale of B Mobile, we will have achieved our original divestment plan target of €500,000,000 by 2027 already this year and have increased our ambition up to €600,000,000 over the twenty twenty three-twenty twenty seven period. Now handing over to Marc for a closer look and starting with the announced update of our full year guidance for 2025.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Thank you, Jan. Indeed, before diving into the drivers, let me walk you through the updated guidance we have given this morning for the full year of 2025. First, on the Domestic segment, we have raised full year 2025 domestic EBITDA guidance from broadly stable to 2024 to an increase by up to 2%. This results from a combination of an improved revenue mix with higher service revenue offsetting lower revenue from terminals and from cost improvement. This is why from a total domestic revenue perspective, we expect to remain broadly stable compared to the previous year, so no change there.

Regarding Proximus Global, the headwind signaled in the first quarter continued and even accelerated, With results over the second quarter and our estimate for the remainder of the year, we reviewed our EBITDA expectations downwards to a year over year decline by five to 10% in comparison to a 20% growth before, despite the successful implementation of cost synergies. I’ll get into more detail in a few minutes to explain what the main drivers are and what, of course, of action is going to be. The domestic upgrade combined with a lowered expectation for global brings us to an expected growth of up to 1% for the Proximus Group. This compares to around 2% previously. The group CapEx and organic free cash flow expectations for the year remain unchanged.

Moving to our key financial results. For the domestic segment, we closed the second quarter with a solid 1.6% increase in service revenue, offset by lower terminal revenues. This more favorable revenue mix drove higher margin, which more than offset the increase in OpEx. As such, we closed Q2 with domestic EBITDA growing by 1.9%. For the global segment, the direct margin was down 10.8 caused by the headwinds previously mentioned.

This resulted in an EBITDA decline of 5.4% despite strong cost control and synergy realization. This brings our Group EBITDA to €491,000,000 for the second quarter, an increase of by 1.2%. Our CapEx for the first half was €542,000,000 and the free cash flow we ended the first half with €266,000,000 in total. Excluding the proceeds from asset sales, the organic free cash flow was negative €5,000,000 a solid improvement year on year. Let’s have a look now at the operational results.

The second quarter operational performance was again robust with very strong results from mobile postpaid adding 38,000 cars despite intense competition. The solid commercial performance was supported by the portfolio changes of the Proximus brand and attractive mobile joint offers, following the early changes for the B brand Scarlet and Mobile Vikings and the ongoing convergence strategy. Our convergent base continues to grow, adding 11,000 residential customers in the second quarter. The resilience of our residential unit in this evolved market structure is underpinned by the multi brand strategy. Our brand Scarlet and Mobile Vikings deliver first line of defense against the fourth entrant and other low end offers in the market.

At the same time, we drive value by positioning the Proxys brand in the premium segment. Thanks to the launch of our fiber centric FlexFlux offers back in the first quarter, the mobile data boost for standalone mobile offers in April, we managed to drive further commercial momentum.

George, Conference Coordinator: Network leadership is at the core of our

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: strategy and we are very proud that we again got the recognition for it, winning the OKLA speed test to the fastest Internet for the first half of this year. In mobile, we crossed another important milestone and now have over 80% indoor five gs coverage. Across Belgium, we now have a total of 2,400,000 fiber homes, meaning a coverage of over 40%, and including fiber and street, we’re even above 45%. Our network filling rate was stable compared to the previous quarter at 33%. At the June, we had activated 646,000 fiber customers, adding another 38,000 in the second quarter.

As Jan already mentioned earlier on, we made significant progress regarding the fiber negotiations. In Flanders, we have strongly progressed to reach an agreement in principle on the terms of a future collaboration to accelerate deployment of fiber networks across Flanders. We are working closely with the BCA and BIPT in view of starting a market test in September. What is more is that we have we have signed last night an MOU with Orange Belgium to expand the deployment of fiber and the access to multi gig networks in Wallonia. The MOU covers nearly 1,400,000 homes in the Walloon region of Belgium.

What is excluded from the MOU is the dense areas tanking about 450,000 homes, where we’ll continue to deploy the fiber in standalone and which is already partly done. Regarding the mid dense areas, our JV UniFibre continued to deploy the earlier 900,000 fiber homes, so no change in deployment, but Orange Belgium will onboard its customers on this network. In addition, Proximus and Orange Belgium will deploy 200,000 fiber homes split amongst the both of us in low dense areas, and we will be onboarding our customers on each other’s fiber networks. Note that from a financing perspective for Proximus, we are looking into different options with the aim to keep this investment off balance sheet. For the remainder of the rule years, so another 600,000 homes, the MOU foresees the usage of HFC with an option to use superior technology should that become available.

This brings a number of clear benefits as listed here on this slide. It will allow for much more efficient CapEx deployment, especially for the rural areas. It will enhance the fiber coverage versus our standalone plant and will bring fiber to around 70% of the world in region. Broader fiber means that we will also have the commercial benefits on a larger scale. Clearly, symmetrical commitments to onboard customers on the fiber network, we’re looking at very high utilization rates.

We will also have a solution for the most rural areas of this part of the country whereby we were able to offer gigabit access to our customers. This will also enable copper decommissioning at a faster pace. So with this MOU, we have clearly taken significant step towards a more efficient network deployment. We will keep you informed on further developments as we move into the next phases of this process. As a final topic for domestic and this time in the business domain, one deal that I would want to spend a little time on is it’s a really strategic win for Proxis Next.

It’s a major contract we won together with Thales for the NATO. It’s a great achievement of the team putting Proximus next on the map as a key player for the digital transformation of defense, offering resilience and secure infrastructure.

: Let’s zoom now in on

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: our Proximus Global segment. Despite the good progress that we’ve made in realizing cost synergies, thanks to a more optimal workforce and cost of sale benefits from optimized routing, we clearly also faced some headwinds. The initial slowdown indications we witnessed in first quarter, more precisely in the CPaaS market, have accelerated and affected some segments strongly. We’ve especially experienced weakness in SMS CPaaS market with international one time password affected the most. This in combination with some operational integration headwinds that are impeding our margin synergy delivery caused the downward revision of EBITDA outlook for Global.

To enhance Global’s performance, we have identified some key areas of focus going forward. For starters, to mitigate the impact of decreasing markets will accelerate the development of our growth products. Omnichannel is on the rise, but today too limited to offset the headwinds. So we’re intensifying efforts to overcome integration challenges and accelerate our transformation to omnichannel, with a particular focus on market communications through RCS. In addition, we are going to maximize the cross sell potential we have across global entities and refocus on more profitable customers and growing markets.

And finally, we want to leverage signed partnerships with Global to drive more value. In this view, we have also announced organizational changes at Lou Mobile with Mr. Rajdi Gupta, Founder and Managing Director reappointed as CEO. And in addition, a new Global CEO will be appointed soon. Let’s now review the Q2 results.

Assuming you have seen the earnings release, will proceed quickly from this part. Starting with domestic revenue, as illustrated on the chart, services revenue grew by 1.1% when including revenue from terminals and IT hardware. The total revenue showed a slight decline of negative 0.7%. The second quarter growth was mainly driven by sustained strong increase in services revenue of the residential unit. This thanks to the January 25 price indexation and the ongoing convergent customer growth.

The growth was partially offset by a decrease in revenues from terminals resulting from lower joint offer volumes. Most valued part of the residential revenue customer service revenue is growing by 2.5% with convergent revenue up by 5.4% year on year. The RPAC continued to show positive evolution, growing 1.8% including price indexation and the benefit from a continued increase in conversion customers and fiber upselling. Turning to the business unit. For B2B, the total revenue declined by 4.4% essentially due to a decrease in low margin products revenues post the very strong first quarter.

I remind that we had a record high level of IT product revenues in the previous quarter, which illustrates the high volatility of this part of the revenue. Yet remember, this is with limited impact on the direct margin. Taking a closer look at the B2B revenue from services, the second quarter included sound growth from IT services, growing 1.7% year over year driven by growth in smart mobility services and workplace. Fixed data revenue remained rather stable with a mix of growing revenue from fixed Internet offset by lower revenue from traditional data connectivity. Despite the competitive intensity, the D2B unit maintained a solid mobile base and sees its mobile revenue decline sequentially moderating following the annualization effect from large customer loss in 2024, including value management actions.

Fixed voice continues a steady decline due to a lower customer base, while the ARPU benefit from indexed pricing. The wholesale business, have achieved a sustained growth in fixed and mobile services, up by 6% for the second quarter. This partially offset decline from low margin interconnect revenue. The year on year revenue declines reflect the further continued volume erosion in traditional messaging. For domestic OpEx, we report for the 2025 an increase of 1.3%, which is a further slowdown compared to the previous quarters.

This year on year increase was mainly impacted by wage indexations and other inflationary effects, higher customer related OpEx and strategic transformation initiatives. This is partially offset by cost efficiencies. This brings me to the domestic EBITDA, grew which for the second quarter by 1.9%, as you can see in the chart resulting from a good growth in direct margin, partially offset by higher workforce OpEx. Turning now to Proximus Global, for which we closed the second quarter with a revenue decline of 18.8%. With the revenue pressure largely on the low margin business, the direct margin was down 10.8% or 8% decline on a constant currency basis.

For the Product Group Communications and Data, direct margin was down 14.8% year on year on a pro form a basis. As explained before, this was due to increasing headwinds in the CPaaS SMS market facing significant volume erosion and price competition. Despite the lower revenue in P2P voice and messaging, the direct margin was up by 1.7% year over year driven by an optimization of the direct margin mix. Successful realization of the cost synergies drove global OpEx down 14.1% year over year on a pro form a basis, which has partially offset the direct pressure with pressure from direct margin. The resulting global EBITDA decreased by 5.4% year over year on a pro form a basis, which represents a decline of 3.2% on a constant currency basis.

Regarding the group CapEx, we closed the first half of the year with €542,000,000 and we remain well on track for the outlook we have given for the year at about €1,300,000,000 Compared to the same period last year, CapEx was lower mainly due to simplicity of TV content contract renewals. Fiber related expenditures increased year over year driven by the consolidation of FibreCar, while investments related to connecting and activating customers have decreased. This brings me to free cash flow for the first half of the year. As illustrated on the chart, the organic free cash flow for the 2025 was negative €5,000,000 strongly improving from one year back, thanks to the growing EBITDA, favorable year over year impact from working capital and lower cash CapEx. Our reported free cash flow includes the proceeds from the sale of our data center business and Luxembourg mobile towers.

This brings me to the next topic. As a last point before turning to your questions, the disposal program of non core assets, which we launched to support our free cash flow throughout the high investment period, is progressing very well. In the second quarter, Proximus Group completed the sale of Luxembourg Towers for a final purchase price of EUR 111,000,000 and we announced the agreement to sell B Mobile at the enterprise value of EUR 170,000,000. As such, we achieved our ambition to divest EUR 500,000,000 of non core assets by 2027, more than two years earlier than planned. As we now also have initiated the sales of a range of real estate, income of amongst other technical buildings we no longer need, we raised the total expected proceeds.

Our total asset disposal program is now expected to bring EUR 600,000,000 by the end of twenty twenty seven. And this concludes my presentation. I will now turn the line open to your questions.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much, sir. Our very first question today is coming from Michael Dicleric calling from KBC Securities. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi.

And thanks for taking my question. The first question would be on the on the global business. Quite a big surprise, of course, in in the outlook as this would imply a further decrease in the EBITDA and the decrease in the EBITDA in the second half this year. So I’m just wondering, can you give a bit more color on why this sudden shift or this acceleration towards SMS has happened? And do you see this as a structural thing?

Will it further or do you think it will further accelerate going forward? And if you could maybe also comment on how much SMS is now of the total compared to other OTT services that you’re providing? And then a second question would be on the residential mobile. Again, a strong quarter and it looks like you fully offset the impact from DGCity in the first quarter. Just wondering now that they launched a new commercial offering the June 1, do you maybe see an impact of that again looking in the month of June specifically?

Those would be my questions.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Michael, thanks for the question. Let me take the first one. So I think we started to see some of this effect on SMS market, which were effectively some of the big kind of OTT players, big enterprise customers, were starting to move some of their traffic, their engagement traffic to other channels. So that was we started to feel that that accelerated in Q2 and effectively is one of the major impacts in terms of our shift in guidance. I think when we look at it in terms of the rest of the year, those structural elements and some of the integration challenges that we put are fully now reflected in our guidance at the end of twenty twenty five.

And I think where we think about this, in the structure of Proximus Global, we always were aware that this was happening and although it’s happened a little faster than we expected, Proximus Global has the assets, the products and portfolios to manage this transition away from traditional ATPSMS to omni channel, RCS, WhatsApp, email, the likes. And so I think we’re well positioned to do that. The scale of the businesses we haven’t disclosed, they’re as you can imagine, it’s slightly bigger on the SMS side than the omnichannel part of our business. And but we’re fully focused on capturing the growth of the RCS, e mail, the WhatsApp channel and we have the products and portfolios to do that. And so that’s a fully part of the Proximus Global strategy and we’re taking swift action in terms to be able to capture that.

So think that’s what the way I would think about it. And as I said, we’ve reflected the latest trends in our outlook for the year and we’re confident in terms of the guidance we’ve given. But we understand that it was swift a change of direction, but part of that was this rapid change in SMS. So that’s where we are on that first question. Jim, you want to

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: take the one? So Michio, thank you for the question. So Jim answering here, so the impact of the new offer of DG launched the June 1, so the EUR 3 offer is extremely limited on our commercial performance. And then, of course, we will closely monitor the market as we always do, but we haven’t seen an impact of that new offer on the market.

George, Conference Coordinator: Yeah. Thank you for the answers. Thank you very much, sir. We will now move to David Bachman of ING. Please go ahead.

: Yes. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. First one on Proximus Global. So I estimate the new guidance implies a 20% drop in EBITDA in H2. So can you say whether the the twenty twenty six targets for for global are basically at risk during the most time line or basically, you’re getting the guidance because of the faster shift towards a mass, even that mediation, difficulty on the integration side?

And is there risks on the of a goodwill write down? So that’s my first question. Then secondly, could you clarify the organic free cash flow message beyond 2025 as communicated in your Q2 twenty twenty four or the average 2025, 2027 and then 2028 to 02/1930? It seems you’re thinking the consensus has been over estimating figures during

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: the medium term. So maybe you can

: give more granularity on CapEx over the over the elements that are not properly properly numbered. And maybe as a follow-up to that, how do you do the MOU signed with your bill and then the change approaching the global impact this free cash flow guidance? Thank you.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: David, let me take the take the first one. In terms of 2026, as I said, the first Q2 results have been slightly disappointing. Again, we have been very swift in terms of taking action, in terms of we focus that in terms of the refocus of the team to accelerate what is already in plan in terms of recapturing some of that shift from SMS to RCS. The teams are very rapidly continuing the progress of that platform and the sales into that channel. So I think in that sense, we’re going to pivot fairly quickly on there.

In terms of some of the integration challenge, we can get into that if needed. But again, we’ve taken some actions in terms of the overall organization and some of the other integration challenges in terms of certainly on the top line, we are very, very focused and have implemented some turnaround plans there. So that’s in terms of what we’ve done. In terms of how we see that going into 2026, again, we believe that the ambitions that we set are continued to be achievable. Again, we’re going to appoint a new Proximus Global CEO, and that person, he or she will come in, in very short order and we expect them to be able to give you a better view of that in due course.

So that’s where we are on Proximus Global. In terms of organic free cash flow, David, I think last year, we gave a very clear disclosure in terms of our free cash flow. What we said and so again, you can go back and look at that. We haven’t updated it since then. In terms of we also said that our time, the fiber deals are incredibly important components of that free cash flow.

And clearly, are still very much in the discussions. We made a significant step forward today, I hope you agree, in terms of realizing those fiber collaboration deals. And so effectively from our perspective, take a look at those free cash flow disclosures from last year. And then as we get to the point where we can disclose the fiber deals are finished, we’ll be able to exactly give you better guidance as we’ve been saying certainly for the last couple of quarters. So that’s where we are.

I don’t think we’ve changed our position at all. I think it’s very clear if you look free cash flow disclosure from last July on the basis of that point in time, that’s where we were and I think consensus can look at those and do the math on our free cash flow over this period of time. That’s that one. And then last one was MOU. Again, on MOU and Nobel today, I mean, think, as we said, it’s a significant step forward in the South.

Again, we’re still it’s an MOU stage and we still have to discuss extensively with the regulator. So I’m sorry, but we’re not going to be able to disclose an awful lot more than what is in the earnings release today on the MOUs and certainly not the impact on free cash flow. We will absolutely, we promised, to come back once those deals are signed, I hope you understand the commercial sensitivity of that, we have to get them in full and final legal form and get the regulatory approval before we can give you the the full detail on the the impacts on free cash flow. Hope you understand.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much. We’ll now move to Dhruva of UBS. Please go ahead.

Dhruva Shah, Analyst, UBS: Good morning. Yes. It’s Druva Shah from UBS. Thanks very much for taking the questions and congratulations on the MOU in The South. Look forward to seeing the update with market test in September.

Appreciate you’re not going to give too much more color there. So I have question on global and then another on the domestic market. So just starting off with global, yes, any more color you can give us in terms of what the integration challenges you’re facing in the go to market strategy would be great there. And in terms of the direct margin synergy delivery, what’s kind of holding you back there, that would be great. And just to clarify, are you still confident on the CHF100 million synergy target then?

So that’s on Global. And then separately, on domestic, there’s been a number of press reports suggesting that Digi have expanded their fiber rollout outside of Brussels and are exploring the fiber rollout in other regions. So just keen to get your take on how quickly did you really are rolling out fiber and how meaningfully they’re expanding their footprint throughout the rest of Belgium? Thank you very much.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Good. Thank you for the question. So on global, let me give you a little flavor on the integration challenges that we’ve seen. Mean, clearly, we’re aware of some of the management changes that went on in Q1. As you know, when that happens, that itself has some integration it takes some time to get that momentum of certainly some of the material management changes that we saw in Q1.

In terms of some other ones and it goes back to your synergy, in terms of the cross sell synergies, again, we put three very successful organizations together in December And when you do that and again, we obviously had a significant ambition on cross sell. And that, again, when you put those three organizations together, we’ve seen some delay in the ability and execution of effectively getting at the cross sell. So that’s another example. In terms of our vision, we clearly believe those cross sell synergies continue to be realizable, but it’s just going to take a little bit more time. And again, as we get the Proxima global CEO in place, I’m sure he or she will clearly start to articulate when we could see those synergies.

And maybe the last one, operation. Again, you saw us sign some very nice deals for our partnership across Proximus Group, but also Proximus Global. I think that’s another example where these are fantastic deals, they are progressing, but the ramp up on some of these partnership deals does take a little longer. So I think that’s three examples where we’ve seen some integration challenges, but frankly, they’re all endlessly fixable. And again, as we’ve been going through Q2 and seeing some of the headwinds, we are refocusing double down our efforts in terms of certainly recapturing the synergy value, the ramping of the partnerships and we’ve clearly seen us take some action on management to give ourselves some very clear leadership in that direction.

So I think that’s where we are on those questions. Jim, do you want to

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: take the G1? Druva, thank you for the question. So when it comes to the commercially available fiber footprint of DG, it’s extremely limited. So as you know, we’ve been deploying fiber for several years now. For us, it’s really important that the same conditions apply to everybody when you deploy fiber.

Next to that, our strategy has always been to make sure that we migrate our customers as soon as possible to that best technology, which means that we can drive customer satisfaction and we see that very much in our NPS scores for customers on fiber. So this is really, really working. All our three brands, Proximus Scarlet and Mobile Vikings are activated on our fiber network, of course, with a different value strategy behind it. So that’s where we are. DG in terms of commercially available footprint, very limited, important that the same rules apply to everybody and our fiber strategy is really delivering great results.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank very much. Thanks so much, sir. We’ll now move to Roshan Ramchik of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Afternoon, everyone. I have three questions, please. Firstly, on the domestic side, Mark, you said that there was a good form of fiscal quarter given the backdrop. I think over the last week, we’ve seen a bit more confidence from your peers in Belgium. Do you think there could be scope for a bit more of a price increase in the market given the kind of step back we have taken over the last twelve months to kind of prepare for the new entrant launch.

Paul Sidney, Analyst, Berenberg: It seems they maybe haven’t got

George, Conference Coordinator: as much traction as previously thought. I know you guys don’t split out the segmentation, but have you seen a mix shift within your three brands? Secondly, on the FTTH build, we saw a bit of a step up this quarter. Is this to do with the fiber car kind of integration now? What kind of run rate should we be thinking of in the coming years for the fiber build?

And also, just going back to the free cash flow, you previously cited working cap as a bit of a drag near term. This quarter saw, I guess, the H1 twenty five run rate better, more positive than or less negative than what we saw in H1 twenty four. Has there anything changed here

Dhruva Shah, Analyst, UBS: on the working capital?

George, Conference Coordinator: Or is it still the same message?

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: Rashaan, thank you for the question. So I will start with the first one. So indeed, I think we have seen in Q2 a bit softer market environment on the low end of the market. I think if you see what we have been doing on the Proximus brand where we, in April, only touched the mid end of the portfolio, so the €25 and the €30 products where we increased value for money only on those products, which is a bit in line with your comment that indeed we try to push value in the market. It has always been the strategy of the Proximel Group from the start to try to keep as much value in the market

So we continue to work on that strategy. I’m happy to see that other competitors are aiming for the same approach. In terms of price increases, I think there we typically do that in January. We have seen our competitors moving again in June and July as well. So there, think on the A brands, you continue to see a healthy movement to continue to drive value in the market as well.

So I think that would be a bit where I am in terms of value management in the market. When it comes to the segmentation mix within the brands, we have the same approach as we had in Q1. So we didn’t really see a big increase in churn or in movement in the market, so that has remained relatively stable. What we do see in acquisition that indeed people tend to choose a bit more the B brands and the A brands before, but it’s not creating a fundamental shift within our customer base. So that would be a bit where I am in terms of the value of the mobile market post launch of the Fortentrant.

Let me take you

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: on the free cash flow, it’s fairly sure. We had some inventory cash collection kind of upside, so I think I wouldn’t take Q2 as a change of direction on working cap. Think our previous comments continue to stay. On fiber build, we did have a nice quarter. I think the way I would go for the rest of the year is more look towards a Q1 number on average between each of the quarters for the for the next couple of years.

That gives you the the help that you want. That’s the that’s the that’s that’s how I think about it. Does that help?

George, Conference Coordinator: Yeah. No. That’s great, guys. Thank you. Thank you much, sir.

We’ll now move to Paul Sidney calling from Berenberg. Please go ahead.

Paul Sidney, Analyst, Berenberg: Yeah. Thank you very much for taking the questions. I’ll take two, please. Firstly, on Global, I know we’ve talked about this a lot already, but just maybe phrasing the question in a slightly different way. And the visibility for investors and analysts on the outlook for the Global business has started to have been pretty low, and we’ve tended to rely on your guidance for that business.

But how can you really give investors confidence that Proximus now has the necessary visibility and the outlook won’t get any worse than the upgraded guidance you’ve given today? Sort of what level of prudence have you taken in the updated guidance, please? And then just secondly on Belgium, you’ve now signed MOUs with your largest competitors, rolling up fiber and potentially hopefully getting access to HFS infrastructure. In your opinion, does this signal a shift in thinking from the Belgian operators? That finally cooperating in terms of focusing on value, not trying to hit that targets or obsess about market share postpaid mobile?

Just be very interested to get your thoughts on those two areas. You.

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: Paul, let me speak on Global.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: I think we’ve been trying over the last quarter to give more visibility and I think we’ve given certain stats in terms of cash flow of what our business generates. Think we got a significant movement on this SMS market. Started to feel it in Q1 and it accelerates in Q2 and certainly set specific segments of that SMS market on international and one time password. So I think it was a pretty rapid change, but I think what we’ve captured in our guidance is a level of confidence that we’ve got for the rest of the year. So we’re confident we’re going to get there.

As I said, we have got a product portfolio that can capture the shift. I think we’re doing everything we can to be able to have that product portfolio suite in the growth areas such as RCS in terms of IoT, in terms of the protect products we’ve got available globally to capture that shift needed by the kind of big OTT players. So I think there we continue to completely believe in this business. As I said, it is a business that is going through as you would expect putting this business together does have integration problems. There again, we’ve very quickly pivoted in terms of what we’re doing to rectify those integration problems.

As I said, we’ve taken the management changes In terms of cross sell, upsell, the sales folks are completely working towards sharing these and accelerating that. And then again on partnerships, partnerships deal is not we don’t have partnership deals signed, they’re signed, it’s the ramping of them. So again, there’s a much more close focus on getting those to ramp. So I think we’re confident we’re going to get to that guidance to the end of the year. And then clearly, we do have the product portfolio to capture where this market is going, the SMS, APP business and certainly international one time password maybe moved a little quicker than we thought, but it’s not that we didn’t realize this was happening.

And again, we’re very much strategically placed to capture where the movement of this business is going. So that’s where we think on global. Think that’s and Jim

George, Conference Coordinator: is going take the yes. So

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: Paul, thank you for the question. So I think when it comes to the collaboration, I think it’s more a signal that the different operators in Belgium, we understand that to deploy fiber in less dense areas, that collaboration is the only way to make this a financial viable approach. So I think I would more link it to that. It has nothing to do with our commercial strategies. Now of course, when it comes to the commercial strategy, I can only talk for the commercial strategy of the Proximus Group.

And I think if you look at that, we have always balanced volume and value in the way we approach the market. I think it’s also very visible in the way we have executed our multi brand strategy since the launch of the fourth entrant on the Basel market and we will continue to do that going forward. But I can only speak from myself, of course.

Paul Sidney, Analyst, Berenberg: I appreciate that. Thank you.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thanks a lot, sir. Next question will be coming from Joshua Mills coming from BNP Paribas Inc. Please go ahead.

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Hi, guys. Thanks for the questions. I got two, please. And I understand the first one

George, Conference Coordinator: is probably better to be asked to the

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: incoming CEO, but in his absence, I just love if you could explain to us why the global segment is important to Proximus going forward. Are there actually any synergy between them and these kind of businesses and the traditional telecom business model you’re running? The reason I ask is, obviously, the previous CEO, I’m sorry, involved in in mobile, you’re one point talking about being the telecoms factory team is agreed to exit. But I note that in the press release, which you published in June, when some of these issues would have been known, the board of Proximus was fairly vocal about the fact they wanted keep improving the international segment. So in light of these results and the uncertainty which has been delivered, do you think that there’s scope for a reconsideration of the process as well on that front?

If you think about that, it would very helpful. And then the second question, and this goes back to the MOU signed with Orange Belgium today, and in particular, the decision to build and co invest in 200,000 homes. And Mark, I think in the beginning, were saying that you would look at our balance sheet financing for 100,000 homes that you build. Why is that the preferred strategy now rather than building on balance sheets towards a relatively small part of the network? And I’m thinking back to the CyberClark joint venture, which you set up with EQT, only last a

Chris Kippers, Analyst, The Group, Petercam: few years, you then bought them

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: out at significant premium. Why not just consolidate that network build on to your balance sheets? Thanks very much.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Just let me take the the first first one to the board. In in terms of the the global strategy, the board continues to be incredibly supportive of that strategy. Why? Because I think it gives us a growth pocket. If you look back at what we the history of Proximus Global, we had VIX and Telesign as majority shareholders.

We took them fully owned at a very nice multiple. And again, even if you do multiples today, that is incredible value creation, which we continue to not believe it’s been our share price. I think, again, we think we did a very good deal with Rubnobile in terms of the cash paid and the reinvestment from the owners. And then again, when we put all those businesses together, do they have synergies completely? And again, if you look at that business from a free cash flow contribution business, which we shared with you, I think, back in Q1 or maybe Q4, that business continues to throw off very meaningful cash, especially in a moment when we’re spending we continue to spend significant amounts of CapEx in fiber.

So that continues to be the thesis. In terms of, again, we haven’t changed our view, and of course, I can’t speak for the new CEO. We haven’t changed our view that we would look for monetizing this at an appropriate point in terms of once we get the synergies through, I think value creation there is significant, right? And again, there’s multiple options in terms of what that could look like, but that hasn’t changed either. So I think the last trend the last quarter results have been difficult for sure.

And again, as I said earlier, the rapid change on the SMS market, international OTP, it’s been difficult, but it’s not something we didn’t know about and something that was always been our strategy in terms of being able to move to the other elements where these large enterprise customers are using to engage with our customers. We have those platforms, we have those services and we fully intend to be able to capture that growth as the traffic moves there. So I think, yes, difficult results in Q2, but absolutely continued belief in the strategy and it’s a very nice business adjacency for Proximus Group and the longer term value creation continues. Now I can’t speak for Stan and he will undoubtedly have his own views, but we’ll see when he arrives in September. In terms of the Orange Belgium, the on balance sheet, off balance sheet, I’ve said we’ve said many times, in terms of FibroClar, there was quite a significant motivation on FibroClar in terms of being able to get to a Fibrocarvation deal with Liberty.

That would have been significantly difficult with another party around the table. Again, we are we’ve made incredible steps to get close to a deal, the FibreCar having another party in this negotiation would have made it in our view, and we’ve said that many times, would have made it very, very difficult. On top of that, clearly, there’s benefits of FibreCar, we’ve talked about that, I think, in the last call in terms of the synergy benefits, the financing benefits, etcetera, etcetera, operational benefits. And those are coming through our in our numbers today, as I said in Q1. So FibroClar was a different reasoning and different thesis.

And again, that for us is the right decision because we are very close now to this deal with Liberty and getting towards a market test, as we said in the release in September. In terms of in the South, again, we said that multiple times, we do intend to take this on balance sheet and that continues to be our view. It’s a smaller amount, obviously, but still that’s still our view that we will finance that off balance sheet once this deal is is is finalized. So that’s basically the full answer to your questions, hopefully.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you. And and so maybe if I

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: could take one follow-up. I think at

Chris Kippers, Analyst, The Group, Petercam: the beginning, I know you’re

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: not gonna get these comments on this, but you mentioned that the majority of the of of the messaging business at the moment is then on the legacy channels I s m s, following WhatsApp, etcetera. Just for helping us think about that in the model. If I look at slide number 20 yeah. Slide showing the split of revenues between, you know, within your international business and you can break it down between communication and data and people’s messaging, are we effectively saying that it’s the communication and data section which includes the

Chris Kippers, Analyst, The Group, Petercam: B2B. Level? Yes. And more

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: than half of that two five one or ATP million direct margin is coming from SMS at the moment.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: I said I said the majority of it. Well, more of it. Yeah. It’s a significant portion of that communication

George, Conference Coordinator: data is the is the ATP SMS.

Joshua Mills, Analyst, BNP Paribas: Alright. Thank you.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you very much, sir, mister Knowles. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have any questions or follow-up questions, please press 1 at this time. We’ll now move to Chris Kippers of The Group, Petercam. Please go ahead.

Chris Kippers, Analyst, The Group, Petercam: Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. First one, coming back on the item that was not really mentioned in detail in the press release is indeed still the absence of any deal in the north of the country. Could you share with us more granularity on why it is taking again so much time and in fact you don’t provide a clear timing now on this one?

And then the second question would be, again, I would say, on something where I think there’s still potential going forward. If you look at the number of people that were retired, we’ve now seen four quarters of about, let’s say, between four fifty and four hundred people leaving the company. However, if you see the rehirings, there it seems that there’s a trend downwards going from, let’s say, three sixty people in Q3 last year towards now two seventeen. Is that a trend we can expect to continue going forward? And hence, some cost synergies could come increasingly from that.

That will be my second question. And then I’ve got perhaps a follow-up on the first Easter ones. Thank you.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Sure. Yes. Thank you, Chris. So on the North, again, if you read into the statement, well, actually, you know, why is it taking so long? Again, this is a as I just alluded to in terms of having, you know, another party around the table, I think it would have been even more complex.

But this is a, you know, large complex deal and clearly, liberty ourselves. You know, we’ve had very good collaborative negotiations. And as I said, we’re very close to that, and we provided guidance that we are we’ve got a view to start a market test in September. So I think there is a date there. But again, it’s we’re negotiating a substantial deal.

There is a lot of facets to that deal. And I said we’re close, but we obviously need to get to a point where we both believe that we’ve got the deal that works for us and that’s what you’d expect us to do. So that’s kind of where we’re at and, you know, I’ll leave you on the question on timing to to read the statement.

Chris Kippers, Analyst, The Group, Petercam: So sorry, Mark. And then just to put to put it clear, now negotiations are, of course, go going towards a deal, a final closing with with Orange. We’d implied also then that we would have a kind of situation whereby both could actually almost coincide in the end, let’s say, towards year end early next year? The same regulator in the end.

Marc Riek, Group CFO, Proximus: Chris, there’s there’s guidance. Right? Clearly, given, you know, where we are on the side, we’re doing where we are north. Right? I’ll you know you know, these deals continue to be commercially negotiated.

So look. I, you know, I I I’m not gonna give anything more than what we said in our press release. I think it’s it’s it’s, you know, clear what we said. And so and and look, I mean, just just so you’re very clear, we are working night and day to get these things done because we realize the importance of them. And so, you know, you can trust us that we will get this done as quickly as human form human form.

On your retiree question, I think, again, don’t know, Jan, do you want to

Jim Castela, Residential Lead, Proximus: take that or you want to take

Jan, Executive, Proximus: I can take it very briefly. Thank you, Chris, for the question. I think you see indeed that trend reflected in the numbers. I think we take every opportunity to look at workforce efficiencies, meaning that every hiring decision is a considered decision. And indeed, we see in the coming years an outflow related to retirement and we take to the maximum benefit without risking the customer satisfaction and the quality of our operations.

Paul Sidney, Analyst, Berenberg: All right. Thank you very much.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you, Kippers. As we have no further questions at this time, I’ll turn the call back over to Nancy Giesens for any additional or closing remarks. Thank you.

Nancy Gozin, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus: Thank you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for your questions. Should there be any follow-up questions, you can obviously reach out to the Investor Relations team. Have a nice weekend.

Bye.

George, Conference Coordinator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today’s conference. We thank you for your attendance. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.

Goodbye.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.