Earnings Labs

Telecom Argentina S.A. (TEO)

Q4 2010 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 22, 2011

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day everyone and welcome to the Telecom Argentina Fourth Quarter 2010 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded. Participating on today’s call, we have Mr. Franco Bertone, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Argentina; Mr. Adrián Calaza, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Pedro Insussarry, Head of Finance; and Mr. Solange Barthe Dennin, Manager of Investor Relations. At this time, I’d like to turn the conference over to Mr. Pedro Insussarry. Please go ahead, sir.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Good morning to everybody, and thank you for participating on this conference call. The purpose of this call, as said by our moderator is – sorry, as mentioned by moderator, is to share with you the consolidated results of Telecom Argentina that correspond to the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2010 ended on last December 31st. We would like to remind you that for all those that have not received our press release or presentation, you can call our Investor Relations office or download them from the Investor Relations section of our website at www.telecom.com.ar/investors. Additionally, this conference call is being broadcasted through the webcast feature available in such section and can also be replayed through that same feature. Before we continue with the conference call, I would like to go over some Safe Harbor information and some other details of the call. We would like to clarify that during the conference call and Q&A sessions, we may produce certain forward-looking statements about Telecom’s future performance, plans, strategies and targets. Such statements are subject to uncertainties that could cause Telecom’s actual results and operations to differ materially. Such uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the effects of the public emergency law or complementary regulation, the effects of ongoing industry and economic regulation, possible changes in demand for Telecom products and services, and the effects of more general factors such as changes in general market or economic conditions, in legislation, or in regulation. Our press release dated February 21, 2011, a copy of which is being included in a Form 6-K report to be furnished to the SEC, describes certain factors that may affect any forward-looking statements that we may produce during this session. Furthermore, we urge the audience of this conference call to read the disclaimer clause contained in…

Franco Bertone

Management

We are happy to announce our 2010 results, they’re quite good and Q4 figures are even better. Revenues grew 20% over 12 months and 25% in the fourth quarter. Data and value-added service grew twice as much and 4 times voice revenue. EBITDA, EBIT, and net profit posted double-digit growth although we experienced some dilution in EBITDA margin due to the combined effect of frozen wireline tariffs and inflationary pressure affecting OpEx. Line in service increased by 2.1 million to 23.7 million in total. We captured an estimated 46% of mobile net adds in Argentina, outperforming competition for the second year in a row. Broadband delivered solid revenue performance with record low churn rates though market grew more than we expected diluting our market share in H1. Strong Q4 sales partially compensated lesser performance of previous quarters. Consolidated net financial position grew by P$700 million to exceed P$1.2 billion. Slide five of the presentation we mailed to you highlights mobile revenues displaying an accelerated pace in Q4. This was as high as 63% for value-added services. 2010 net adds share was significantly higher of our market share, particularly for smartphone sales. Broadband performance strongest point is a sustained churn reduction, which dropped to a record low 1.2% a month in the last quarter. Also, worth mentioning is the launch of broadband fixed and mobile convergent offer for the mass market successfully performed in Q4. Our of our financial performance, we draw your attention this 25% fourth quarter revenue growth, as well as the outstanding Telecom Personal bond US$173 million that was fully canceled by the year-end. Let’s address some details of our mobile operation in 2010, referring to slide number six of the presentation. In Argentina, we experienced strong quarterly results with a 17% year-on-year ARPU increase. 12-month customer base…

Operator

Operator

(Operator instructions) And we will take our first question from Michel Morin with Barclays Capital. Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Good morning. I was hoping to ask about subscriber growth, in particular, I think it was a little bit light relative to our expectations, but we also saw lighter than expected subscriber growth at América Móvil in the fourth quarter. So I was wondering if you can comment a little bit about what do you think are the reasons for this? And then I did not catch your post-paid net additions, so I don’t know if you could share that with us. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Please stand by. Mr. Morin, sorry at this time we are unable to hear you.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Yes, give us a minute. We’re gathering the information on Michel’s question. Hold on, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

Well, answer your two questions about the subscriber growth in Q4, it’s pretty normal in the industry if we have some maintenance of the customer base over the last four quarters and filtering out customer advance do not meet our standards of ARPU and traffic over the last quarter. So I mean you’ll see the figures of the fourth quarter just affecting of the maintenance work only on the base for the full year. As far as the cost base Q4 growth, I mean we don’t disclose.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Amy, can we go to our next question unless Michel has a follow-up.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Yeah. I might go on.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Yeah, sure. Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Hi. So I’m sorry, I’m not sure if I got the last part, you said you don’t disclose the post-paid net adds, is that right?

Franco Bertone

Management

Yeah. But I’m prepared to say the thing that post-paid growth rate was higher than prepaid in the fourth quarter. Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Okay. In terms of year-on-year growth rate you mean?

Franco Bertone

Management

Correct, yes. Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Okay. And then given that we had fewer net additions, I was also a little bit surprised to see that your subscriber acquisition costs and retention costs still continued to creep up as a percentage of sales. And specifically we saw commissions go up and advertising go up. So, I think obviously that had an impact on margin in the quarter. Is there – should we expect that that little uptrend continues again into 2011 or are we kind of as high as we might go on that line item? Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

Yeah. Advertising and subscriber acquisition costs go together with gross adds, not with net adds. And gross adds has been in line with previous quarter. In general terms, I would say that as was commented during the presentation that we had a significant impact, about 110 basis points of the – applying the full application of the new taxation of imports of telecom sets that produced that 110 basis point effect on – over revenues in the fourth quarter. A seasonality effect on advertising costs and particularly as I mentioned in the presentation last quarter advertising costs weren’t affected by the title sponsorship that we did on the car event this year and that it’s a seasonal effect. Michel Morin – Barclays Capital: Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Franco Bertone

Management

Okay.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question will come from Rodrigo Villanueva with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Hi, good afternoon. My first question is regarding your dividend proposal. Last year the dividend payout ratio over 2009 profits was of around 76%, so I was wondering if you could share with us why this year you proposed a payout ratio of only 50% on 2010 profits. Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

Yes, the payout ratio that is over the last year that still is around 93% of paid capital in the company, reflects the fact that we are expecting in 2011, the frequency spectrum option that has been announced by the authority in the market. And we’ll be bidding competitively for that. I mean we need to expand spectrum, for the current operation it comes at 50 megahertz and 1.9 gigahertz bandwidth. And we are not considering to take debt to fund our offer for the spectrum being auctioned and therefore I mean we had a more prudent approach in that respect. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Okay. Thank you. So in terms of dividend payout ratio going forward, what would be more reasonable to expect for you to be proposing something along the lines of the 50% or probably past 2011 that you’re not going to have more cost related to spectrum, we could see it going up to around 75% or so. Is that reasonable to assume? Thank you. Adrián Calaza: That is okay. The thing is that, as we already mentioned, we don’t have a dividend policy in the company. And as Franco was telling you, 2011 will be kind of particular in the financial side because of these auctions of spectrums. So I can give you a forecast of dividend for the next years, but we usually try to distribute our free cash flow. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Okay, understood. Thank you very much. And a second question would be regarding your wireless subs and net adds. I was wondering if you could provide us with a breakdown between voice users and 3G modem users. And also if you have seen any type of cannibalization between your mobile and your fixed broadband products? Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

Yes. Our current share of 3G sets is about 10%. It has increased substantially over the last 12 months. It’s 10% of our customer base of the 60 million that we are operating. And then, second question, no, I mean we haven’t seen any cannibalization effect of mobile broadband over wireline broadband. As a matter of fact, we are leveraging on those two products. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, please go ahead.

Franco Bertone

Management

And combined products. Okay? Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: All right, understood. Thank you very much. Adrián Calaza: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And we’ll take our next question from Alex Garcia with Citigroup. Alexandre Garcia – Citigroup: Hi, good afternoon gentlemen. I have a few questions. First one is regarding the options that you guys just mentioned. What is exactly for sale? What is the capacity that is for sale? And how far from the spectrum cap are you guys? That will be my first question. My second question is regarding salary readjustments. And I was wondering if you guys could refresh how much of your costs are related to inflation and how much of your CapEx are also related to inflation? Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

Yeah, one minute.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Alex, give us two minutes.

Franco Bertone

Management

We’re ready, we’re ready. Well, as far as the frequency spectrum being auctioned, we are talking how the – at least we are interested to 850 megahertz in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires and 1,900 megahertz in the rest of the country. Our current frequency allocation is about 10 megahertz and below the current frequency cap, and therefore we are going to take advantage of hopefully and that’s where we are bidding for – the access we are bidding for in the coming auctions. As far as your question about OpEx and CapEx exposures into ForEx, currently OpEx is 80% in local pesos and 20% in dollars or foreign currencies. And in the case of CapEx is approximately half and half, slightly more in our currency than it is about 60% than it is in local currency. The overall effect on OpEx is in the range of 14% coming from the blend of the fact that the 80% OpEx in local currency is exposed to inflation and 20% in dollar it is. I hope I answered your question. Alexandre Garcia – Citigroup: Yeah, yeah, you did. And if I may, how was negotiations regarding with the unions are developing – it has been settled already, how much they are asking for or (inaudible) the union that is left to negotiate salary readjustment this year? Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

It’s a bit early for that, I mean, our negotiation with (inaudible) to around June of the year. So it’s a bit early for the question. Alexandre Garcia – Citigroup: Okay. Thank you, and good luck on that negotiation.

Franco Bertone

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take a follow-up question from Rodrigo Villanueva. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Yes. Hi. I was wondering if you could share with us your 2011 CapEx forecast, please. Thank you. Adrián Calaza: Yeah, our budgeted CapEx for 2011 is P$3.5 billion and is in the same range of consolidated revenue that we had in 2010. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Okay. And just to clarify, does these – would you be planning to – the spectrum that you’re going to buy is including the CapEx or it would be expensed? Thank you.

Franco Bertone

Management

No, it’ll not be expensed, but it is not included in the CapEx figures we provided. There would be an additional capital expenditure for 2011. Rodrigo Villanueva Bravo – Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Okay. Thank you very much.

Franco Bertone

Management

Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And sir, there are no further questions at this time.

Pedro Insussarry

Management

Well, thank you very much for being at this quarterly conference call. Thank you very much for your questions. Do not hesitate in contacting our Investor Relations colleagues at any time for further inquiries you may have. And thank you and good morning to you all and have a nice day. We expect to meet you soon again.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today’s presentation. Thank you for your participation.