NYSE:BCE BCE Q1 2025 Earnings Report $21.54 +0.07 (+0.30%) Closing price 05/23/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$21.58 +0.04 (+0.19%) As of 05/23/2025 07:58 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast BCE EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.48Consensus EPS $0.44Beat/MissBeat by +$0.04One Year Ago EPS$0.75BCE Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$4.12 billionExpected Revenue$5.92 billionBeat/MissMissed by -$1.80 billionYoY Revenue Growth-1.30%BCE Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2025Date5/8/2025TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateThursday, May 8, 2025Conference Call Time8:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsBCE's Q2 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, August 7, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 8:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress ReleaseEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by BCE Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 8, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BCE Q1 twenty twenty five Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Richard Benjin. Please go ahead, Mr. Operator00:00:09Benjin. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:00:10Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are Mirko Bibic, BCE's President and CEO and our CFO, Curtis Millen. You can find all our Q1 disclosure documents on the Investor Relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning. Have a lot of material to get through on this call. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:00:33However, before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on Slide two, reminding you that today's slide presentation and remarks made during the call will include forward looking information and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties. Results could differ materially. We disclaim any obligation to update forward looking statements except as required by law. Please refer to our publicly filed documents for more details on assumptions and risks. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Mirko. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:01:05Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. I shared in February our strategic and operational road map that will guide our actions for 2025 and beyond, focusing on our customers and on creating value for shareholders. We have a clear strategy for growth, and that's anchored in four key priority areas, putting the customers first, providing the best Internet and wireless networks and services, unlocking potential for businesses with technology solutions, and building a digital and media content powerhouse. Moreover, we will continue to modernize and simplify how we do business and how we operate. And before providing an update on our progress against each of these, I wanna call out two key and very material developments. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:01:46This morning, we announced a major partnership with PSP Investments, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers with approximately $265,000,000,000 in net assets. PSP is an extremely experienced telecom investor. It will be helping us fund the expansion of our US business, which could see a commitment in excess of $1,500,000,000 This will significantly de risk our future funding requirements and bring support for our US fiber growth strategy while still allowing us to proceed with our deleveraging plans. I'll describe our partnership in more detail in just a few minutes. Secondly, given the significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, our board has established the annualized dividend per VC common share at a dollar $75 per share from $3.99 per share. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:02:37This change will be effective with the July dividend payment. This will help us achieve more quickly our near term deleveraging target of 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven, as well as our longer term target of three point zero times. Both of these developments are consistent with our strategy to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth, and enhance total shareholder returns. Now on to the four priorities. As you see on slide four, we're putting customers first as our top priority. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:03:08Earlier this year, we became the first Canadian telecom company to name a dedicated chief customer experience officer. Since taking on this role, Badir Hassan has been hard at work on improving the entire customer experience, and that's grounded in four key commitments that define service excellence from a customer's point of view and our path towards making it easy to do business with Bell. Our objective is to put our customers at the heart of every interaction with us. We know their time is valuable. That's why we're prioritizing self serve tools to help customers get the support they need whenever they need it, including twenty four seven AI powered virtual assistance while keeping our phone lines free for more complex cases or people who prefer to speak to someone directly. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:03:50We've also introduced a new intuitive digital bill, and we're improving the tools available to our representatives so that no matter how customers interact with us, our team has access to the same up to date information. And because we know that life does not wait, we're enhancing our callback experience so that our team can follow-up without customers having to sit on hold. This approach will materially improve customer satisfaction, churn, and ultimately customer lifetime value and financial performance. Turning to slide five now. The next key priority is to provide the best fiber and the best five g networks. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:04:26Internet and wireless, as you all know, are our largest businesses and most important revenue drivers. We've made significant investments over the past several years in fiber and five g, which continue to receive third party recognition for delivering the fastest download and upload speeds, lowest latency, robust security, and standout reliability and resiliency. Now over to slide six. I know I say this often, but I'm gonna say it again. Fiber is the future. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:04:52It's clearly the superior technology, and customers know it. Fiber gives us a sustainable advantage that will last for decades. Since 2020, when we made the decision to accelerate fiber deployment, we've increased our total footprint by more than 50%. We have the largest fiber footprint in Canada at more than 7,800,000 households and business locations, and it's clear that our strategic investment is paying off. We more than doubled our Internet customer base on fiber to 3,000,000, and over 60% of these customers are taking gigabit plus speeds. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:05:25We doubled our fiber revenue over the same period. Where we have fiber, our market share has grown 18% to 48%. Where we've had fiber for a longer time, our market share is above 50%. And if you look at our numbers quarter after quarter, we consistently capture the majority of new broadband additions with fiber. Moreover, where we have fiber, our mobility and Internet bundled sales continue to grow and now comprise more than 50% of our total residential households. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:05:55Our residential fiber penetration rate is approximately 44% across our entire footprint. That's a blended figure that comprises older tenured and more recently deployed markets. In our oldest tenured markets, penetration is at 50% or higher. In our experience, the average penetration rate in new fiber footprint reaches 45% by the third year after deployment. And since we've built more than 1,900,000 new fiber locations in the last three years, many of our markets are lower on the penetration curve, all of that to say lots of room to grow. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:06:31The bottom line is this, our commitment to fiber is at the core of our strategy, and where we have fiber, we win. Turning to The US fiber market now on slide seven. The US is a natural expansion market for BCE where we can leverage our deep expertise in building fiber infrastructure. As a reminder to investors, let me briefly outline the reasons why The US fiber market is so attractive. US fiber deployment lags behind Canada. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:06:59Only 51% of homes in The US have fiber compared to 75% here in Canada. Fiber penetration also lags. Competitive dynamics are favorable given our largely two player market driven by retail with no mandated wholesale access to fiber. The market structure is even more attractive for Zipline. Household income and economic growth across its four states in the Pacific Northwest is above the national average. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:07:27There are one or fewer gigabit capable competitors in 93% of Zipline fiber's operating footprint, no multi gig capable competitors, and relatively less overbuilding activity in the Pacific Northwest than in some other US regions. The U. S. Has attractive fiber economics with a low cost to build and strong ARPU growth. Importantly, like in Canada, U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:07:50S. Customers are choosing fiber, which brings me to our acquisition of Zipline on Slide eight. Zipline is delivering consistently strong results with EBITDA growing an impressive 17% in 2024 powered by fiber. This growth rate is even greater than planned, which is a testament to the Zipline management team's execution excellence. Management's demonstrated ability to execute will become even more valuable as the foot fiber footprint expands. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:08:19Zipline's more mature tenured markets have already reached 40% penetration. That compares with an average penetration rate of 23% in locations built in the last few years. So we're getting in at a very opportune time where there's still meaningful growth ahead of that penetration, particularly when you consider that over 40% of fiber locations were built in the last four years with more to come. 85% of Zipline's approximately 400,000 retail subscribers are on pure fiber service. Zipline also benefits from a favorable operating mix with over 70% of total revenues from consumer and SMB and with a robust enterprise and wholesale business also built on the back of fiber. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:09:01The acquisition is on track to close in the second half of twenty twenty five. It's an important part of our plan to generate sustained top line and EBITDA growth. Now let's move to Slide nine. We previously said we'd be open to working with third parties help fund our fiber growth in The US as we look to strengthen our balance sheet, diversify our revenue streams, and improve free cash flow. There's been strong interest amongst financial partners to join us in capturing a significant growth opportunity. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:09:30Given the power of Zipline's assets and strong track record of its management team and BC's experience and success with fiber. As mentioned, we're very pleased to announce a long term strategic partnership with PSP Investments through their infrastructure portfolio to build new fiber locations in The US and support Zipline's footprint expansion. BCE through Zipline will retain a 49% equity stake in the partnership with PSP owning 51%. PSP has been an investor in Zipline and knows the management team well. To be clear, and this is important, BCE will own 100% of Zipline's existing operations, subscribers, and financials. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:10:14Zipline, as a BC subsidiary, will continue its fiber expansion within its remaining copper footprint. Zipline will also retain all retail customer relationships associated with the incremental fiber locations to be built by the strategic partnership. What the partnership will be focused on is building last mile fiber in Zipline's growth markets. This includes the near term development of approximately 1,000,000 fiber passings in Zipline's existing states with the ability to expand to 6,000,000 fiber locations longer term. This will enable Zipline to eventually reach up to 8,000,000 total fiber locations, an increase from its original target of 3,000,000. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:10:56The strategic partnership structure is a cost effective and capital efficient way to fund our U. S. Fiber growth while still meeting our deleveraging targets, and I'll detail that momentarily. Now let's move to Slide 10. This long term partnership provides clarity on our U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:11:13S. Fiber ambitions. Zipline's ILEC footprint covers approximately 2,000,000 customer premises. Upon closing of the acquisition, fiber will already be available to approximately 1,500,000 of these locations. The remaining 500,000 locations will be built and owned by Zipline over the coming years as part of Ziply's existing in footprint fiber build strategy. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:11:40And as I mentioned, the partnership has long term visibility into as as many as 6,000,000 additional locations outside of Ziply's two million location ILEC footprint. The partnership unlocks our ability to capture the significant additional footprint and related financial benefits. So when you combine our 8,000,000 locations in Canada that have fiber this year, Our US fiber assets will grow BC's position as North America's Third largest fiber Internet provider with access to approximately 16,000,000 total passings. There's clearly long term growth potential in this critical space. Turning now to Slide 11 to wrap up on The U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:12:23S. Fiber. The PSP strategic partnership is an exciting announcement for BCE and for our shareholders. It allows us again to support the fiber expansion in a cost efficient manner while optimizing the balance sheet and improving our free cash flow profile. Through this endeavor, Ziply will retain the retail economics of its existing and future customer relationships in the fiber footprint to be deployed by the partnership, and this will improve BC's revenue and EBITDA growth profiles. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:12:52BC and PSP will proportionately fund any equity needed by the partnership as required over time. This significantly reduces the capital investment by BCE and improves BCE free cash flow by over $1,000,000,000 over the twenty twenty six to twenty twenty eight time period. The partnership will also have its own nonrecourse debt financing, which is anticipated to be the majority of its capital over time. This further reduces BCE's cash funding requirement. The partnership will be deconsolidated with all CapEx and debt financing remaining off BCE's balance sheet. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:13:30This structure and attractive cost of capital will improve our expected returns in The US. We're estimating an all in rate of return in The US of 20% or higher. So now let me turn to the next element of our strategic road map, and that's on slide 12. Our third priority is to unlock the potential of businesses with the best technology solutions, and we've set an ambitious goal, which I've shared before, to generate a billion dollars in revenue by 2030, and we're well on our way. And just two days ago, we launched Ateco. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:14:01It's an all new Montreal headquarter technology solutions provider, and Ateco brings together under the under the same banner the tech startups we've recently acquired, which are FX Innovation, Cloud Kettle, and HGC Technologies. Its competitive differentiators uniquely position it to deliver better outcomes for enterprise customers. Ateco's team of workflow automation experts will draw on their experience in the world's largest hyperscalers and automation platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Salesforce, and ServiceNow to help customers streamline their operations, improve automation, enhance customer experience, and facilitate data driven decision making. We've created a one stop shop for businesses, networking, and technology solutions needs. Ateco's capabilities position us to achieve significant growth in the enterprise space. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:14:57I'll now move to Slide 13. The fourth key area of focus is to build a digital media and content powerhouse. Our digital pivot in media is bearing fruit after a lot of hard work and focused investments. Digital advertising is expected to have a total addressable market of $22,000,000,000 in Canada in 2028, up from 16,000,000,000 in 2024. As we continue to capture more share of that digital advertising market, profitable growth lies ahead for Bell Media. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:15:25Our priorities in digital media and content are the following. Grow Crave from 4,000,000 subscribers today to 6,000,000 by 2028, maintain sports leadership through the best breadth of content, accelerating conversion to digital inventory, and a focus on extending content value and monetization. This is already being realized with Bell Media's acquisition of a majority stake of global content distributor Sphere Abacus. This move expands Bell Media's content distribution opportunities. Let me touch briefly now on the fifth key pillar on slide 14. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:16:02As I outlined in February, we have an extensive transformation program in place to modernize and simplify how we do business. We started this transformation in 2022, and it's already delivered $500,000,000 in savings. At the time, I stated that we had $500,000,000 more to go through 2028 to achieve our goal of a billion dollars in cost savings. Given our transformation momentum to date, we've upsized that objective by an additional $500,000,000 for a new goal of $1,500,000,000 in total cost savings by the end of twenty twenty eight. I'll now turn to our capital allocation strategy on slide 15. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:16:41We're navigating a complex operating environment, has evolved significantly since the fall of twenty twenty four. In February of this year, we laid out a clear roadmap to adapt to this evolving environment, and I've kinda expanded on it today. Core to this plan is our capital allocation strategy. Strengthening the balance sheet, investing for growth, and driving total returns are the key priorities. Let me share the meaningful progress we've made over the last few months, beginning with optimizing our balance sheet. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:17:11In February and March, we successfully accessed the hybrid debt markets in The U. S. And Canada, raising the Canadian equivalent of approximately $4,400,000,000 in our first hybrid offerings in each market. Given the 50% equity treatment afforded by the credit rating agencies, this has meaningfully improved our leverage ratio. Consistent with our deleveraging plans, we repurchased several bonds trading at a discount to par value, reducing the amount of debt. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:17:38These actions have collectively lowered our net debt leverage ratio by approximately 0.3 times since Q4, bringing it to approximately 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA. Given BC's healthy balance sheet and business mix, we are best in class from a credit ratings perspective in Canadian Telecom. In addition, our review of non core assets continues to advance. The previously announced divestitures of Northwest Tel and MLSC are progressing as expected, and we've launched two processes for additional divestitures. Proceeds from any new sale will support our deleveraging efforts. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:18:15The acquisition funding for Ziply is leverage neutral, and we structured the transaction in a way that balances growth with financial discipline. I've explained that in detail in the earlier in the earlier sections on The US. Bottom line is the partnership will enable us to better capture the significant upside of fiber expansion, unlocking incremental cash flow to support deleveraging at the BC level, and it complements our broader efforts to strengthen the balance sheet. And as I mentioned earlier, we're already seeing Zipline outperform expectations. In fact, since we announced the acquisition in November, the transaction multiple of 14.3 times estimated 2025 adjusted EBITDA is now already closer to 13 times. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:18:59The Zipline team is driving very strong customer acquisition and penetration on its fiber metrics, and the metrics will get even better as we go forward as we capture the incremental synergies and growth opportunity from the PSP partnership. Now the second component of our capital allocation strategy is investing for growth. Our approach remains grounded in those strategic pillars I've outlined previously, and we'll continue to execute on them with precisions. The investments are designed to position us for sustained success in an evolving market for ensuring we'll remain an industry leader. And the third aspect of our strategy is delivering value to shareholders. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:19:38The focus is on maintaining a resilient and sustainable dividend, achieving leverage ratio targets, and greater flexibility as we drive total shareholder returns. And that brings me to slide 16 and our dividend announcement this morning, which encompasses all three components of our capital allocation strategy. We spent considerable time with our shareholders, discussing their perspectives and carefully evaluating our operating landscape. We must address a number of significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, as I've mentioned. Today's actions will allow us to deftly navigate through this cycle. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:20:17Considering these factors, we've made the appropriate decision to adjust our dividend. The annualized dividend per BC common share will be established at $1.75 per year effective with the Q2 dividend payment. Even with the adjustment of the to the dividend, we continue to provide an attractive yield that is among the highest on the TSX sixty. Additionally, we're updating our long term common share dividend payout policy to target a payout range of 40% to 55% of free cash flow. This policy range provides us with more flexibility for deleveraging. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:20:52To make it easier for investors to consider the effects of capital leases on our cash flow, we will begin to also disclose our free cash flow after capital lease repayments going forward. In addition, we will provide on an annual basis the implied dividend payout ratio on the basis of free cash flow after cap lease repayments along with the payout ratio based on our policy. The adjusted dividend will support our deleveraging efforts while providing enhanced flexibility and positions us as a resilient dividend paying company. By the end of twenty twenty seven, we expect to achieve a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA pro form a Ziply with a longer term goal of approaching three times by 02/1930. We will also eliminate the treasury discount feature of the DRIP effective with the q two dividend payment on July 15. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:21:43These decisions are the right ones for the long term health of BCE and the long term interest of our shareholders. As we look to the future, I wanna reiterate our unwavering focus on disciplined execution, financial resilience, and value creation. The steps we've taken this quarter demonstrate our ability to adapt and deliver in a challenging environment. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kurz. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:22:07Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin on slide 18 with BC. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially stable, while margin improved 40 points on the back of a 2.1% reduction in operating costs. Total revenue was down 1.3%. This can be largely attributed to a 7.4 decrease in low margin product sales, which included the loss of revenue from the source store closures in 2024 and conversions to Best Buy Express. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:22:38Our service revenue result reflected the flow through impact of sustained competitive pricing pressures over the past year and ongoing declines in legacy voice, data, and satellite TV services. Net earnings were up nearly 50% in q one. The increase was due mainly to early debt redemption gains related to the repurchase of certain bonds trading at a discount to par value. Nothing notable on adjusted EPS, consistent with our 2025 guidance assumptions for interest and depreciation expense and a higher average number of shares outstanding because of the discounted treasury DRIP. It was down $03 compared to last year. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:23:19CapEx was down $273,000,000 this quarter. We remain on track to reduce capital investment by $500,000,000 in 2025 in line with our plan. The CapEx reduction, lower cash taxes and higher cash from working capital drove a $713,000,000 year over year increase in Q1 free cash flow. Turning to Bell CTS on slide 19. Starting with a high level summary of q one subscriber metrics. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:23:48Retail Internet net adds of, 9,500 were down versus an exceptionally strong Q1 last year. In addition to slowing industry growth due to fewer newcomers and less new fiber footprint expansion, our result this quarter reflected our consistent strategy to balance subscriber growth with financial performance. Importantly, customers continue to choose fiber because we offer a superior product with a symmetrical speed advantage over cable. Where we have fiber, our subscriber loadings and market share gains remain strong. Our fiber to the home customer base now accounts for 68% of our total retail Internet subscriber base. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:24:29Moving to wireless. We recorded a small net loss in total mobile phone subs in q one compared to 25,000 net adds last year. This was a function of a 7.7% decrease in gross activations, reflecting a slower market. However, consistent with our operating strategy to focus on margin accretive subscriber acquisition, we gained 25,000 net new customers on the main Bell brand. Notably, postpaid churn remained stable in Q1 following nine consecutive quarters of year over year increases. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:01While it remains higher than we'd like, we're pleased with the improving trajectory. Managing our churn will continue to be a top priority. Mobile phone ARPU was down 1.8%. This represents a second straight quarter of improvement in the year over year rate of decline. Our ARPU result this quarter reflected sustained competitive pricing pressure and lower roaming due in part to decreased travel to The US. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:27Moving to Bell CTS Financials. Internet revenue was up 2.4%. Solid result showing we're striking the the right balance between sub growth and disciplined pricing. We also saw continued strength in business solutions where revenue grew 8% over last year. This was driven by higher sales of technology solutions as well as acquisitions made over the past year. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:50Wireless service revenue was down dot 8%. This is a notable improvement from the 1.5% decline in q four. We expect the rate of decline will continue to improve going forward as ARPU improves. However, the industry will continue to feel the impacts of the pricing levels in market over the last twelve months for a while longer. Wireless product revenue was down $60,000,000 this quarter. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:26:14The year over year decline was the result of lower sales of mobile devices to large enterprise customers in the government sector as well as the loss of revenue from the source store closures in '24 and conversions to Best Buy Express. Our EBITDA result was in line with plan. Notably, margin increased 20 points over last year to 45 dot 7%, the direct result of our significant and ongoing focus on cost management as evidenced by a 2.7% reduction in operating costs this quarter. Turning over to Bell Media on slide 20. Continued digital momentum and strong overall financial performance marked by a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue and EBITDA growth. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:26:58Digital revenues were up 12%. This was mainly on the back of strong Crave D2C streaming growth, which drove a 22% increase in Crave subscribers to three dot 8,000,000. Notably, direct to consumer streaming subscriptions now comprise the majority of total Crave subscribers. Total advertising revenue increased for a fifth straight quarter on the strength of digital, live sports, and events, increased spending related to the federal election, and the contribution of OutEdge Media. Subscriber revenue growth of seven dot 8% was driven by continued direct consumer crave and sports streaming growth. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:27:37Media EBITDA was up 35 dot 9%, driving a substantial four dot four point increase in margin to 20.5%. Really a nice performance by media by growing revenue, EBITDA, and margins. Turning to slide 21. Our balance sheet is very healthy with 4 dot 7,000,000,000 of available liquidity and pension solvency surpluses totaling 3,800,000,000.0 at the end of Q1. We ended Q1 with a net debt leverage ratio of below 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA compared to 3.8 times at the end of Q4. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:28:13The decrease can be attributed to the combined impact of $4,400,000,000 in hybrid notes offerings issued in advance of the Ziply Fiber transaction and repurchases of bonds trading at a discount to principal value. We are highly focused on deleveraging our balance sheet with the execution of our plan toward a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven. The plan includes substantial free cash flow generation, divestiture of non core assets and applying incremental retained cash resulting from the revised dividend level toward paying down debt. Our updated dividend payout policy of 40% to 55% of free cash flow is reflective of a balanced approach to capital allocation. This policy range allows us to fund our capital allocation priorities, which are to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth and return capital to shareholders. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:29:09To wrap up on Slide 22, we remain confident in our proven ability to deliver under any circumstances, backed by the best networks and services, our ongoing business transformation, consistent operational execution and cost discipline. We're laser focused on the key strategic priorities that Mirko outlined to create long term value for shareholders. I'd also notice that I am reconfirming our financial guidance targets for 2025 with the annualized common dividend at $1.75 per share. I will now turn the call back over to Richard and the operator to begin Q and A. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:29:45Thanks, Curtis. Before we start, I want to remind everyone that due to time constraints this morning because of our AGM that is taking place after this call, to please limit yourselves to one question and a brief follow-up so that we can get to as many in the queue as possible. With that, Matthew, we are ready to take our first question. Operator00:30:05Thank you. The first question is from Mehri Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:30:12Great. Thank you for taking my question. Never easy decisions when companies decide to cut the dividends, but doing it for the right reasons I think it's very good. I wanted to ask you in terms of your leverage targets that you mentioned in your prepared remarks and in your presentation, do they include any asset sales that have not been announced yet? And just a follow-up in terms of wireless. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:30:47When we look at gross loading in the environment that you're operating in, do you think that Q1 was a apparent quarter or this is more the environment that you're going to be probably in for the rest of the year? Thank you. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:31:07Thanks for the question, Meyer. In terms of the leverage targets, you know, our plan remains as we announced couple of months ago to sell the $7,000,000,000 in assets that includes MLSE, Northwest Tel, and a couple other processes that we have on the go. So it it basically factors in what we, what we announced last quarter. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:31:32On, thanks for the question, Mehrotz Mirko. On the, the wireless question, I give you a May maybe a bit of a a broader answer, but but I'll basically, to to answer a very specific question, but but more context. So I would say that if you looked at early on in q one, we were seeing some pricing stability green shoots. I think in back half of q one, there was a reversion to kind of frothy pricing activity across the industry. So I think you see from that the overall industry loadings in including ours are affected by the macro environment as well, including the clampdown on immigration. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:32:11And and then there's the kind of impact of pricing. So if you put the two together, we decided not to not to go after nonaccretive loadings. So what you the numbers behind the numbers is that we had pretty strong performance on the Bell brand again, and we had strong performance on, on cross sell. And our wireless product margins remained positive. So I think now to end that's the context for q one. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:32:39Now to answer your specific question, as we're we look into q two and and the progress so far, we see the metrics trending in the right direction for sure, and we see ARPU decline improvement. We're seeing churn improvement. Our sales were okay in q one, and as we improve churn, I think that's going to deliver, you know, what investors are expecting. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:33:06Thank you. Operator00:33:08Thank you. Our next question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC. Please go ahead. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:33:17Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning. I guess first on the 2025 reiteration of guidance. Marco, you began to talk about Q2, and I understand visibility is not great. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:33:30Just want to get a sense of the working assumptions in terms of reiterating guidance with respect to the competitive environment and macro. We're just trying to assess, I guess, your degree of confidence in keeping within your existing guidance range. And then my follow-up just on the target 3.5x leverage for 2027. So great, obviously, to get a target out there. Simplistically, if I kind of run that through my forecast, including kind of the noncore asset sales that you've announced, the aggregate $7,000,000,000 I get a leverage by 2027 that's just a little 0.2x, 0.3x lower than 3.5x. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:34:19So I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything else here, whether it's EBITDA growth or higher kind of CapEx investment given the announcement this morning. Just any other big picture puts and takes that you know, may help reconcile that. And if I need to take that offline with Curtis, that's great. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:34:37Yeah. Hi, Drew. Thanks for the question. Yeah. We delevered in q one as we issued the the hybrids. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:34:45Thought it was a good idea to to issue hybrids to delever, given the kind of uncertainty in the market. So once we close Zipply, leverage would go back up given we're assuming Zipply Fiber, debt as well. And going forward, as you say, free cash flow growth, asset sales. Then you made a comment about, funding needs. The the funding needs at the partnership are actually quite limited given, our partnership with PSP and the ability to lever at the partnership level. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:35:16So as Mirko said, the partnership by itself actually improves our free cash flow by over a billion dollars in the first three years. So, all of that will lead us to, better free cash flow and deleveraging. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:35:29On the first question, Drew, it's Mirko. I just you know, in terms of the the reconfirming of guidance, you know, if you go back to February, and, when we provided guidance for the year, that's why we had a a view of what the year would look like. And, therefore, we put the ranges in place that we did, you know, kinda with a fairly relative terms, fairly wide range on on either end, to, to acknowledge the environment that we thought we would be in. So we're in a position to to reconfirm that guidance today. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:36:06K. Thank you. Operator00:36:09Thank you. Our next question is from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:36:16Thanks very much. First, just to clarify on guidance as well. Dollars 300,000,000 gain on the bond redemptions helped your free cash flow in the first quarter, but you've not changed the guidance. Should you be at least trending to the high end of that free cash flow guidance given that boost, which I'm pretty sure you didn't expect when you gave us the guidance originally in February? And then on Zipline joint venture, can you just confirm you would be the exclusive retail partner on the Network Fiber Co? Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:36:47And the extra 6,000,000 homes, is that all planned construction, or could some of that be buying existing assets in combination with, CapEx? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:36:59Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. It's Mirko. On the first well, I'll answer the last two questions first. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:37:07So, yes, the plan is for, Ziply Fiber to be the exclusive tenant on the network. And on, fiber, and on reaching the additional 6,000,000 homes and you asked a question there about the possibility of m and a. Like, right now, the focus is, closing the Ziply Fiber transaction. And shortly after that, we'll be in a position to close Network Fiber Co, which is the strategic partnership. Then the focus is gonna be to execute on the build plan in in that attractive, US market. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:37:38So those are those are I highlight that for a reason. That's gonna be the focus. If down the road, we see we can more efficiently hit build targets through m and a, the goal will be to do so, but within the partnership and, without, intending to veer off of our deleveraging targets that we've expressed to all of you today. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:04Thanks. And then, Vince, the the gain on the repurchase. So while we, we're able to reduce our debt amount, principal amount by over 500, the actual gain is not included in our free cash flow. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:38:19The 798,000,000 in the first quarter did not include that 300,000,000, Curtis? Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:24Correct. It, the the outperformance is largely, working capital and cash cash tax timing. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:38:32Okay. I may have to take you offline because I don't see where it's backed out in your numbers, but I'll trust you. Thank you. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:39Thank you. Operator00:38:41Thank you. Our next question is from Matthew Griffiths from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:38:48Hi. Thanks for taking the question. On the timing of this the PSP kind of network fiber co, how should we think about that? I mean, obviously, I know you're focused on closing things first. But is it what is the timeframe generally for the 6,000,000 homes passed? Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:39:10And is the 1,500,000.0 billion dollars contribution from PSP, is that directly tied to the $6,000,000 passing number? Or is that just the initial investment? And to achieve the 6,000,000 additional funding is required? Any detail would be helpful in understanding how this all how the numbers that are presented kind of tie together. And then just quickly on the 25,000 net adds on the main Bell brand, I was curious how that compares year over year. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:39:42Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:39:44Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. So on, so it's a long the the partnership is a long term, partnership through, through the infra side of PSP, as I mentioned. So, you know, the the the goal will be to, get to the 6,000,000 homes over over time. You can't you can't build instantaneously, so that will take time. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:08And the the commitment, that we express in terms of the the financial contribution that will be provided over time as we build. So that's that's the intent there. And as I mentioned, we'll be we'll be providing debt financing at that partnership level of as well to to help fund that program. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:36And then on the, Bell brand, Meta? Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:39Yeah. I was looking for it. So that's why there was a little bit Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:42Oh, sorry. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:42No. No. That's why there was a little bit of a stall. So, it's down 9,000 year over year. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:49Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate the, clarity. Operator00:40:56Thank you. Our next question is from Sebastiano Petty from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:04Hi, good morning everyone. Just one quick follow-up on the $1,500,000,000 Is that a capital call or a lump sum payment that you'll have to make? And then just following up on Drew's question, just thinking about the delevering profile or the 3.5 net debt leverage target over time, we're just a lot of questions, lot of inbounds from investors just trying to understand or square the math there. I mean you have $7,000,000,000 of asset sales coming through. You have $2,000,000,000 of ZipLee debt that's coming on. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:35That implies pretty significant delevering. But then it sounds like you're going to be relevering. So is there a downgrade to free cash flow that we should be thinking about, particularly in light of the dividend? You have $2,000,000,000, you know, without the dividend payment of cash each year. I'm just trying Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:54to square that math there. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:56And then also lastly on the dividend, sorry, Curtis. You know, why why $1.75? Why did you land there? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:42:05Okay. So, I'll I'll Curtis will answer the free cash flow, question, but let me let me address, the other two. Your first question, same, essentially what Matthew asked me. So it's going to the contributions to Network Fiber Co are over time as we build. So it's not a onetime payment. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:42:27The third question on why a dollar 75, on that one, the board considered a range of options, as I'm sure you can imagine. And and this is the level that the BCE board believes gives us the flexibility to achieve our capital allocation objectives. And, you know, they're on page 15 of our presentation. So it's optimized the balance sheet, essentially accelerate deleveraging and and optimize the cost of capital. The flexibility to invest for growth, it's incumbent on us to continue to grow this franchise and and then, you know, return deliver total shareholder returns to our shareholders by being a sustainable dividend paying company. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:43:07So that's and so, you know, of the range of options that we had considered and and taking in the input of of investors over time, that's the number that the board felt gave us that flexibility. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:43:19And then to address your your leverage question, Sebastiano, so the $7,000,000,000 of asset sales is the gross number, but the MLSE proceeds so the net proceeds from the $4,700,000,000 sale of MLSE are part of the sources and uses to acquire Ziply Fiber. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:43:44Got it. Understood. And then maybe so the open access partnership, I guess, I mean, yes, maybe The US is behind in terms of fiber build out in The US, but relative to Canada. But with The US built 10,000,000 fiber passings last year on pace to build another 10,000,000 over the next several years. We have very long term, well capitalized companies chasing additional passings. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:09Just trying to what gives you comfort, I guess, maybe in the the greenfield opportunity of getting to that incremental five, 5,000,000 that you guys have outlined above and beyond the three that you originally talked about with Zipley? Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:21Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:22Oh, we we've done we've done the work in our due diligence on the extent of passings that are there and and ready to be built to at a a low cost to build. So we've done some extensive due diligence on that. So we are quite comfortable as is the Ziply fiber team, as you can imagine. And on the first part, you said open open access, Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:45but I don't know Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:45what you meant there, as Vince asked. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:48Sorry. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:49Yeah. Sorry. It's more of the wholesale partnership. Just, yeah. So not just an open access partnership. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:56The partnership is just to be clear, the partnership is not an open access partnership, just to be clear on that. And then we Yep. We also will be able to get to those 6,000,000 homes, which we've, you know, kind of, like I said, done extensive work on at a at an attractive cost of capital given the structure that we've established with PSP. And I I'd say PSP is also a very experienced telecom infrastructure, investor, and and they see the potential here in The US and particularly with Zipline Fiber, which they're already a shareholder of and working with us given our expertise. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:45:33Thank you. Operator00:45:36Thank you. Our next question is from Jerome Zubay from Desjardins Securities. Please go ahead. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:45:44Hey, thank you. Thanks for taking my question. First is on the acceleration of fiber deployment. Actually, it looks like an acceleration. I'm not sure the time frame is comparable. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:45:56And it looks to be significant. So I'm trying to see what is the rationale behind that. Is it now that your capital structure is in a better place that you can afford to do that? Or maybe are you seeing additional opportunity? And the second one, I mean, are going to be trying to figure out what the pro form a free cash flow is gonna be, pro form a, the infra co, and the acceleration. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:46:24So any detail you can provide? Are you investing more in terms of free cash net of all the transactions you are announcing this morning? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:46:35Thanks, Yawam. So on the acceleration point, I just wanna clarify. So when we announced Zipline Fiber initially, we indicated that they had a base case build plan to get to about 3,000,000 homes by 2029. And with BCE's scale and resources, we would accelerate that 3,000,000 homes to 2028. So that doesn't change. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:47:00We think we'll get to around 3,000,000 homes by 2028. '2 million of those of those 3,000,000 and most and those 3,000,000 will largely be in the four Pacific Northwest states in which Sipley Fiber currently operates. What what's different here is, you know, at close, we'll have 1,500,000 of those 3,000,000 already done. There's another 500,000 copper lines in Ziply Fiber ILEC footprint that we need to upgrade to fiber by 2028. That will be funded by BCE. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:47:31The other million homes will be part of the partnership. So it's it's a different way of getting to the same 3,000,000 homes in a way that's immediately free cash flow, kinda immediately improves the free cash flow profile of BCE by the billion dollars that I mentioned given the the support of PSP. It strengthens and increases our ability to capture that fiber opportunity. And in terms of the additional 5,000,000 homes, therefore, those will be tackled over time beyond 2028 with PSP as a world class financial partner. So, therefore, that's gonna accelerate Zipline Fibers growth and accelerate and provide it with, you know, expanded growth potential, again, in a financially flexible way given that we'd be doing it through the strategic partnership. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:48:25So all, you know, all told, we're gonna be enhancing the returns associated with, the Ziply fiber investment. Not to mention that, you know, it's it's already, you know, looking more accretive accretive than in November of twenty twenty four given the management team's performance even since we announced the deal. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:48:48Then, Jerome, just to to pile on, you asked a question about the free cash flow. I think one other input. So we had said in, in November, CapEx, pro form a for Zipline would live within the 16 and a half percent c to I envelope. Given the partnership with PSP, we expect that's gonna be close to 14 and a half percent. And then after, after Zipline has built out the 500,000 locations within its ILEC footprint, as Mirko mentioned, then we would expect that c to I percentage to, drop from there. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:49:28Thank you. Operator00:49:30Thank you. Our next question is from Patrick Ho from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:49:38Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Just two questions for me. The first question is, can you guys talk about how you guys are thinking about the new government's impacts on key areas like TPI and immigration? And then the the second question I had is you guys upsized your cost savings target goal by 500,000,000 to 1,500,000,000.0. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:50:00Can you just unpack, the various buckets that are within that additional 500,000,000 cost savings and just where these items come from? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:50:10Yeah. I'll take both. On the, on the business transformation, like I said in my remarks, we've been quite successful, on the initiatives we've, we've undertaken since 2022, and that's delivered the 500,000,000 that I that I've outlined and I've shared before. And and that's, you know, that's one of the key drivers that allows us to increase margins across BCE quarter after quarter. In terms of, the initiatives, just to keep it to keep it, kinda quick and simple, it's things like automation, use of AI, consolidating billing stacks, modernizing ordering stacks, obviously, continue on the copper to fiber migration, self serve, self install, use of chatbots, virtual agents, including, voice. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:50:53So those are the kinds of things. And and we're also actually you know, we're relying in part on the expertise of Ateco, the folks at Ateco to help drive workflow automation and and unlocking the value from our Salesforce and ServiceNow environments. And if you think about it, there are significant learnings there, which we, of course, can bring to the benefit of our enterprise customers as we drive growth through tech services. So we're both, you know, on an op when we go to the customers, so we're both an operator because the things we're suggesting our enterprise customers do, we're doing for ourselves through Ateco. So that's, the answer on, on the business transformation. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:33And the first one was first question. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:51:36TPIO. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:37Oh, TPIO. Yeah. Working with government. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:38So thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:39Thank you, Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:39Richard. We're looking forward to having constructive dialogue with the new, federal government, and top of the list in terms of, of topics would be the fighter fiber resale file. I think it comes down, comes down to this. I we've celebrated our 40 birthday just last week. And for a hundred forty five years, we've been building critical infrastructure, in Canada for Canadians to connect Canadians, and that allows Canada to grow. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:52:15Right? Because if you think about the the networks that our industry provides, you know, you need it for everything from AI to cloud services to banking to connecting with your loved ones to entertaining yourself, everything. And so we wanna continue to do that. And in order to continue to do that at the levels which we've been doing it, you do need ultimately an environment that encourages investment. And, you know, allowing the largest players in the market to resell services on each other's networks is actually a direct disincentive to investment. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:52:51And, it's gonna undermine the goal to have more resiliency and connect more Canadians, particularly in, in rural Canada. So, know, very and intend to take a very constructive approach, and if it's a logical position we have, and, and we're looking forward to the dialogue. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:53:12Great. Thank you. Operator00:53:14Thank you. Our next question is from Aravinda Galappathige from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:53:22Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with the follow-up. I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. So the CapEx intensity ratio beyond 2025, it sounds like basically you will not exceed 14.5%. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:53:38That would be sort of the new high point. I just wanted to confirm that. And secondly, based on sort of the business transformation cost reductions that you talked about with respect to severance and restructuring cash costs, I mean, was $330,000,000 last year. You know, how should we should should that kind of be sort of the standard for the next sort of next couple of years? I wanted to confirm that as well. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:54:09So thanks, Aravinda, for the question. Yeah. I I think 14 and a half is the right range. I don't know if it's quite under 14 and a half, but it's in and around 14 and a half. Obviously, it, it depends a little bit on on how fast we're driving subscriber growth and and demand CapEx that comes along with that, but in in the 14 and a half percent range is is a good estimate. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:54:32And in terms of in terms of the cost reductions and and cost to actually capture those, I would say these past couple of years have been higher on the, onetime costs. There's still gonna be some costs going forward to, to to be able to capture benefits of transformation, but I I would expect the cost to be going down over time as it's more and more, process improvement as well. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:55:01Okay. Thank you. I'll pass the line. Operator00:55:06Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Benjian. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:55:13Thanks again for your participation on the call this morning. As usual, I will be available throughout the day for follow-up questions or clarifications. Thanks, and have a Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:55:22great day. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Operator00:55:28Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesRichard BengianDirector of IRMirko BibicCEO, President & DirectorCurtis MillenExecutive VP & CFOAnalystsMaher YaghiManaging Director at ScotiabankDrew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital MarketsVince ValentiniManaging Director at TD CowenMatt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill LynchSebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP MorganJérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins SecuritiesPatrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan StanleyAravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity IncPowered by Key Takeaways Announced a strategic partnership with PSP Investments to fund US fiber growth via Ziply, with BCE retaining 49% and PSP 51%, targeting up to 6 million new passings (and 8 million total) while keeping funding off BCE’s balance sheet. Effective July, the annual dividend is set at $1.75 per share (eliminating the DRIP discount) and payout policy updated to 40–55% of free cash flow, to accelerate deleveraging to ~3.5× EBITDA by end-2027 and ~3.0× longer term. Reinforced Canadian fiber leadership with a 50% footprint increase since 2020 to 7.8 million locations, doubling fiber subscribers to 3 million (60% on gig speeds), doubling fiber revenue, and capturing ~50%+ market share where fiber is available. Modernization program delivered $500 million in savings since 2022, and the target was raised by another $500 million for a total of $1.5 billion in cost savings by end-2028 through AI, automation and process simplification. Q1 results showed adjusted EBITDA flat with a 40 bp margin gain, revenues down 1.3%, net earnings up ~50% on bond repurchase gains, CapEx reduction of $273 million, and free cash flow up $713 million year-over-year. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallBCE Q1 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipants Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release BCE Earnings HeadlinesI’d Put $7,000 in This TSX Giant Before it Recovers CompletelyMay 23 at 8:28 AM | msn.comThis 5.8% Yielding TSX Star Is Trading at a Rare DiscountMay 21, 2025 | msn.comTrump wipes out trillions overnight…Is there anybody more powerful than Donald Trump right now? In a single tariff announcement, he wiped out nearly $5 trillion in wealth from the S&P 500 and $6.4 trillion from the Dow Jones… Not to mention the countless trillions of dollars lost in every market around the world… leaving the major political powers scrambling in fear of Trump’s next move.May 25, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)Brokerages Set BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE) Price Target at $38.67May 21, 2025 | americanbankingnews.com3 High-Yield Dividend Stocks to Buy in MayMay 20, 2025 | msn.comBC/AD or BCE/CE: Republicans in Texas Senate vote to advance Christian agendaMay 20, 2025 | msn.comSee More BCE Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like BCE? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on BCE and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About BCEBCE (NYSE:BCE), a communications company, provides wireless, wireline, Internet, and television (TV) services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Bell Communication and Technology Services, and Bell Media. The Bell Communication and Technology Services segment provides wireless products and services including mobile data and voice plans and devices; wireline products and services comprising data, including internet access, internet protocol television, cloud-based services, and business solutions, as well as voice, and other communication services and products; and satellite TV and connectivity services for residential, small and medium-sized business, government, and large enterprise customers. This segment also buys and sells local telephone, long distance, and data and other services from or to resellers and other carriers; and operates consumer electronics retail stores. The Bell Media segment provides conventional TV, specialty TV, pay TV, streaming services, digital media services, radio broadcasting services, and out-of-home advertising services. BCE Inc. was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Verdun, Canada.View BCE ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Booz Allen Hamilton Earnings: 3 Bullish Signals for BAH StockAdvance Auto Parts Jumps on Surprise Earnings BeatAlibaba's Earnings Just Changed Everything for the StockCisco Stock Eyes New Highs in 2025 on AI, Earnings, UpgradesSymbotic Gets Big Earnings Lift: Is the Stock Investable Again?D-Wave Pushes Back on Short Seller Case With Strong EarningsAppLovin Surges on Earnings: What's Next for This Tech Standout? Upcoming Earnings PDD (5/27/2025)AutoZone (5/27/2025)Bank of Nova Scotia (5/27/2025)NVIDIA (5/28/2025)Synopsys (5/28/2025)Bank of Montreal (5/28/2025)Salesforce (5/28/2025)Haleon (5/28/2025)Costco Wholesale (5/29/2025)Marvell Technology (5/29/2025) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BCE Q1 twenty twenty five Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Richard Benjin. Please go ahead, Mr. Operator00:00:09Benjin. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:00:10Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are Mirko Bibic, BCE's President and CEO and our CFO, Curtis Millen. You can find all our Q1 disclosure documents on the Investor Relations page of the bce.ca website, which we posted earlier this morning. Have a lot of material to get through on this call. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:00:33However, before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our safe harbor statement on Slide two, reminding you that today's slide presentation and remarks made during the call will include forward looking information and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties. Results could differ materially. We disclaim any obligation to update forward looking statements except as required by law. Please refer to our publicly filed documents for more details on assumptions and risks. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Mirko. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:01:05Thank you, Richard, and good morning, everyone. I shared in February our strategic and operational road map that will guide our actions for 2025 and beyond, focusing on our customers and on creating value for shareholders. We have a clear strategy for growth, and that's anchored in four key priority areas, putting the customers first, providing the best Internet and wireless networks and services, unlocking potential for businesses with technology solutions, and building a digital and media content powerhouse. Moreover, we will continue to modernize and simplify how we do business and how we operate. And before providing an update on our progress against each of these, I wanna call out two key and very material developments. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:01:46This morning, we announced a major partnership with PSP Investments, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers with approximately $265,000,000,000 in net assets. PSP is an extremely experienced telecom investor. It will be helping us fund the expansion of our US business, which could see a commitment in excess of $1,500,000,000 This will significantly de risk our future funding requirements and bring support for our US fiber growth strategy while still allowing us to proceed with our deleveraging plans. I'll describe our partnership in more detail in just a few minutes. Secondly, given the significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, our board has established the annualized dividend per VC common share at a dollar $75 per share from $3.99 per share. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:02:37This change will be effective with the July dividend payment. This will help us achieve more quickly our near term deleveraging target of 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven, as well as our longer term target of three point zero times. Both of these developments are consistent with our strategy to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth, and enhance total shareholder returns. Now on to the four priorities. As you see on slide four, we're putting customers first as our top priority. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:03:08Earlier this year, we became the first Canadian telecom company to name a dedicated chief customer experience officer. Since taking on this role, Badir Hassan has been hard at work on improving the entire customer experience, and that's grounded in four key commitments that define service excellence from a customer's point of view and our path towards making it easy to do business with Bell. Our objective is to put our customers at the heart of every interaction with us. We know their time is valuable. That's why we're prioritizing self serve tools to help customers get the support they need whenever they need it, including twenty four seven AI powered virtual assistance while keeping our phone lines free for more complex cases or people who prefer to speak to someone directly. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:03:50We've also introduced a new intuitive digital bill, and we're improving the tools available to our representatives so that no matter how customers interact with us, our team has access to the same up to date information. And because we know that life does not wait, we're enhancing our callback experience so that our team can follow-up without customers having to sit on hold. This approach will materially improve customer satisfaction, churn, and ultimately customer lifetime value and financial performance. Turning to slide five now. The next key priority is to provide the best fiber and the best five g networks. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:04:26Internet and wireless, as you all know, are our largest businesses and most important revenue drivers. We've made significant investments over the past several years in fiber and five g, which continue to receive third party recognition for delivering the fastest download and upload speeds, lowest latency, robust security, and standout reliability and resiliency. Now over to slide six. I know I say this often, but I'm gonna say it again. Fiber is the future. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:04:52It's clearly the superior technology, and customers know it. Fiber gives us a sustainable advantage that will last for decades. Since 2020, when we made the decision to accelerate fiber deployment, we've increased our total footprint by more than 50%. We have the largest fiber footprint in Canada at more than 7,800,000 households and business locations, and it's clear that our strategic investment is paying off. We more than doubled our Internet customer base on fiber to 3,000,000, and over 60% of these customers are taking gigabit plus speeds. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:05:25We doubled our fiber revenue over the same period. Where we have fiber, our market share has grown 18% to 48%. Where we've had fiber for a longer time, our market share is above 50%. And if you look at our numbers quarter after quarter, we consistently capture the majority of new broadband additions with fiber. Moreover, where we have fiber, our mobility and Internet bundled sales continue to grow and now comprise more than 50% of our total residential households. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:05:55Our residential fiber penetration rate is approximately 44% across our entire footprint. That's a blended figure that comprises older tenured and more recently deployed markets. In our oldest tenured markets, penetration is at 50% or higher. In our experience, the average penetration rate in new fiber footprint reaches 45% by the third year after deployment. And since we've built more than 1,900,000 new fiber locations in the last three years, many of our markets are lower on the penetration curve, all of that to say lots of room to grow. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:06:31The bottom line is this, our commitment to fiber is at the core of our strategy, and where we have fiber, we win. Turning to The US fiber market now on slide seven. The US is a natural expansion market for BCE where we can leverage our deep expertise in building fiber infrastructure. As a reminder to investors, let me briefly outline the reasons why The US fiber market is so attractive. US fiber deployment lags behind Canada. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:06:59Only 51% of homes in The US have fiber compared to 75% here in Canada. Fiber penetration also lags. Competitive dynamics are favorable given our largely two player market driven by retail with no mandated wholesale access to fiber. The market structure is even more attractive for Zipline. Household income and economic growth across its four states in the Pacific Northwest is above the national average. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:07:27There are one or fewer gigabit capable competitors in 93% of Zipline fiber's operating footprint, no multi gig capable competitors, and relatively less overbuilding activity in the Pacific Northwest than in some other US regions. The U. S. Has attractive fiber economics with a low cost to build and strong ARPU growth. Importantly, like in Canada, U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:07:50S. Customers are choosing fiber, which brings me to our acquisition of Zipline on Slide eight. Zipline is delivering consistently strong results with EBITDA growing an impressive 17% in 2024 powered by fiber. This growth rate is even greater than planned, which is a testament to the Zipline management team's execution excellence. Management's demonstrated ability to execute will become even more valuable as the foot fiber footprint expands. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:08:19Zipline's more mature tenured markets have already reached 40% penetration. That compares with an average penetration rate of 23% in locations built in the last few years. So we're getting in at a very opportune time where there's still meaningful growth ahead of that penetration, particularly when you consider that over 40% of fiber locations were built in the last four years with more to come. 85% of Zipline's approximately 400,000 retail subscribers are on pure fiber service. Zipline also benefits from a favorable operating mix with over 70% of total revenues from consumer and SMB and with a robust enterprise and wholesale business also built on the back of fiber. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:09:01The acquisition is on track to close in the second half of twenty twenty five. It's an important part of our plan to generate sustained top line and EBITDA growth. Now let's move to Slide nine. We previously said we'd be open to working with third parties help fund our fiber growth in The US as we look to strengthen our balance sheet, diversify our revenue streams, and improve free cash flow. There's been strong interest amongst financial partners to join us in capturing a significant growth opportunity. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:09:30Given the power of Zipline's assets and strong track record of its management team and BC's experience and success with fiber. As mentioned, we're very pleased to announce a long term strategic partnership with PSP Investments through their infrastructure portfolio to build new fiber locations in The US and support Zipline's footprint expansion. BCE through Zipline will retain a 49% equity stake in the partnership with PSP owning 51%. PSP has been an investor in Zipline and knows the management team well. To be clear, and this is important, BCE will own 100% of Zipline's existing operations, subscribers, and financials. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:10:14Zipline, as a BC subsidiary, will continue its fiber expansion within its remaining copper footprint. Zipline will also retain all retail customer relationships associated with the incremental fiber locations to be built by the strategic partnership. What the partnership will be focused on is building last mile fiber in Zipline's growth markets. This includes the near term development of approximately 1,000,000 fiber passings in Zipline's existing states with the ability to expand to 6,000,000 fiber locations longer term. This will enable Zipline to eventually reach up to 8,000,000 total fiber locations, an increase from its original target of 3,000,000. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:10:56The strategic partnership structure is a cost effective and capital efficient way to fund our U. S. Fiber growth while still meeting our deleveraging targets, and I'll detail that momentarily. Now let's move to Slide 10. This long term partnership provides clarity on our U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:11:13S. Fiber ambitions. Zipline's ILEC footprint covers approximately 2,000,000 customer premises. Upon closing of the acquisition, fiber will already be available to approximately 1,500,000 of these locations. The remaining 500,000 locations will be built and owned by Zipline over the coming years as part of Ziply's existing in footprint fiber build strategy. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:11:40And as I mentioned, the partnership has long term visibility into as as many as 6,000,000 additional locations outside of Ziply's two million location ILEC footprint. The partnership unlocks our ability to capture the significant additional footprint and related financial benefits. So when you combine our 8,000,000 locations in Canada that have fiber this year, Our US fiber assets will grow BC's position as North America's Third largest fiber Internet provider with access to approximately 16,000,000 total passings. There's clearly long term growth potential in this critical space. Turning now to Slide 11 to wrap up on The U. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:12:23S. Fiber. The PSP strategic partnership is an exciting announcement for BCE and for our shareholders. It allows us again to support the fiber expansion in a cost efficient manner while optimizing the balance sheet and improving our free cash flow profile. Through this endeavor, Ziply will retain the retail economics of its existing and future customer relationships in the fiber footprint to be deployed by the partnership, and this will improve BC's revenue and EBITDA growth profiles. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:12:52BC and PSP will proportionately fund any equity needed by the partnership as required over time. This significantly reduces the capital investment by BCE and improves BCE free cash flow by over $1,000,000,000 over the twenty twenty six to twenty twenty eight time period. The partnership will also have its own nonrecourse debt financing, which is anticipated to be the majority of its capital over time. This further reduces BCE's cash funding requirement. The partnership will be deconsolidated with all CapEx and debt financing remaining off BCE's balance sheet. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:13:30This structure and attractive cost of capital will improve our expected returns in The US. We're estimating an all in rate of return in The US of 20% or higher. So now let me turn to the next element of our strategic road map, and that's on slide 12. Our third priority is to unlock the potential of businesses with the best technology solutions, and we've set an ambitious goal, which I've shared before, to generate a billion dollars in revenue by 2030, and we're well on our way. And just two days ago, we launched Ateco. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:14:01It's an all new Montreal headquarter technology solutions provider, and Ateco brings together under the under the same banner the tech startups we've recently acquired, which are FX Innovation, Cloud Kettle, and HGC Technologies. Its competitive differentiators uniquely position it to deliver better outcomes for enterprise customers. Ateco's team of workflow automation experts will draw on their experience in the world's largest hyperscalers and automation platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Salesforce, and ServiceNow to help customers streamline their operations, improve automation, enhance customer experience, and facilitate data driven decision making. We've created a one stop shop for businesses, networking, and technology solutions needs. Ateco's capabilities position us to achieve significant growth in the enterprise space. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:14:57I'll now move to Slide 13. The fourth key area of focus is to build a digital media and content powerhouse. Our digital pivot in media is bearing fruit after a lot of hard work and focused investments. Digital advertising is expected to have a total addressable market of $22,000,000,000 in Canada in 2028, up from 16,000,000,000 in 2024. As we continue to capture more share of that digital advertising market, profitable growth lies ahead for Bell Media. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:15:25Our priorities in digital media and content are the following. Grow Crave from 4,000,000 subscribers today to 6,000,000 by 2028, maintain sports leadership through the best breadth of content, accelerating conversion to digital inventory, and a focus on extending content value and monetization. This is already being realized with Bell Media's acquisition of a majority stake of global content distributor Sphere Abacus. This move expands Bell Media's content distribution opportunities. Let me touch briefly now on the fifth key pillar on slide 14. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:16:02As I outlined in February, we have an extensive transformation program in place to modernize and simplify how we do business. We started this transformation in 2022, and it's already delivered $500,000,000 in savings. At the time, I stated that we had $500,000,000 more to go through 2028 to achieve our goal of a billion dollars in cost savings. Given our transformation momentum to date, we've upsized that objective by an additional $500,000,000 for a new goal of $1,500,000,000 in total cost savings by the end of twenty twenty eight. I'll now turn to our capital allocation strategy on slide 15. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:16:41We're navigating a complex operating environment, has evolved significantly since the fall of twenty twenty four. In February of this year, we laid out a clear roadmap to adapt to this evolving environment, and I've kinda expanded on it today. Core to this plan is our capital allocation strategy. Strengthening the balance sheet, investing for growth, and driving total returns are the key priorities. Let me share the meaningful progress we've made over the last few months, beginning with optimizing our balance sheet. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:17:11In February and March, we successfully accessed the hybrid debt markets in The U. S. And Canada, raising the Canadian equivalent of approximately $4,400,000,000 in our first hybrid offerings in each market. Given the 50% equity treatment afforded by the credit rating agencies, this has meaningfully improved our leverage ratio. Consistent with our deleveraging plans, we repurchased several bonds trading at a discount to par value, reducing the amount of debt. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:17:38These actions have collectively lowered our net debt leverage ratio by approximately 0.3 times since Q4, bringing it to approximately 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA. Given BC's healthy balance sheet and business mix, we are best in class from a credit ratings perspective in Canadian Telecom. In addition, our review of non core assets continues to advance. The previously announced divestitures of Northwest Tel and MLSC are progressing as expected, and we've launched two processes for additional divestitures. Proceeds from any new sale will support our deleveraging efforts. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:18:15The acquisition funding for Ziply is leverage neutral, and we structured the transaction in a way that balances growth with financial discipline. I've explained that in detail in the earlier in the earlier sections on The US. Bottom line is the partnership will enable us to better capture the significant upside of fiber expansion, unlocking incremental cash flow to support deleveraging at the BC level, and it complements our broader efforts to strengthen the balance sheet. And as I mentioned earlier, we're already seeing Zipline outperform expectations. In fact, since we announced the acquisition in November, the transaction multiple of 14.3 times estimated 2025 adjusted EBITDA is now already closer to 13 times. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:18:59The Zipline team is driving very strong customer acquisition and penetration on its fiber metrics, and the metrics will get even better as we go forward as we capture the incremental synergies and growth opportunity from the PSP partnership. Now the second component of our capital allocation strategy is investing for growth. Our approach remains grounded in those strategic pillars I've outlined previously, and we'll continue to execute on them with precisions. The investments are designed to position us for sustained success in an evolving market for ensuring we'll remain an industry leader. And the third aspect of our strategy is delivering value to shareholders. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:19:38The focus is on maintaining a resilient and sustainable dividend, achieving leverage ratio targets, and greater flexibility as we drive total shareholder returns. And that brings me to slide 16 and our dividend announcement this morning, which encompasses all three components of our capital allocation strategy. We spent considerable time with our shareholders, discussing their perspectives and carefully evaluating our operating landscape. We must address a number of significant changes in our economic and operating environments that have occurred since the fall of twenty twenty four, as I've mentioned. Today's actions will allow us to deftly navigate through this cycle. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:20:17Considering these factors, we've made the appropriate decision to adjust our dividend. The annualized dividend per BC common share will be established at $1.75 per year effective with the Q2 dividend payment. Even with the adjustment of the to the dividend, we continue to provide an attractive yield that is among the highest on the TSX sixty. Additionally, we're updating our long term common share dividend payout policy to target a payout range of 40% to 55% of free cash flow. This policy range provides us with more flexibility for deleveraging. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:20:52To make it easier for investors to consider the effects of capital leases on our cash flow, we will begin to also disclose our free cash flow after capital lease repayments going forward. In addition, we will provide on an annual basis the implied dividend payout ratio on the basis of free cash flow after cap lease repayments along with the payout ratio based on our policy. The adjusted dividend will support our deleveraging efforts while providing enhanced flexibility and positions us as a resilient dividend paying company. By the end of twenty twenty seven, we expect to achieve a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA pro form a Ziply with a longer term goal of approaching three times by 02/1930. We will also eliminate the treasury discount feature of the DRIP effective with the q two dividend payment on July 15. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:21:43These decisions are the right ones for the long term health of BCE and the long term interest of our shareholders. As we look to the future, I wanna reiterate our unwavering focus on disciplined execution, financial resilience, and value creation. The steps we've taken this quarter demonstrate our ability to adapt and deliver in a challenging environment. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kurz. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:22:07Thank you, Mirko, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin on slide 18 with BC. Adjusted EBITDA was essentially stable, while margin improved 40 points on the back of a 2.1% reduction in operating costs. Total revenue was down 1.3%. This can be largely attributed to a 7.4 decrease in low margin product sales, which included the loss of revenue from the source store closures in 2024 and conversions to Best Buy Express. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:22:38Our service revenue result reflected the flow through impact of sustained competitive pricing pressures over the past year and ongoing declines in legacy voice, data, and satellite TV services. Net earnings were up nearly 50% in q one. The increase was due mainly to early debt redemption gains related to the repurchase of certain bonds trading at a discount to par value. Nothing notable on adjusted EPS, consistent with our 2025 guidance assumptions for interest and depreciation expense and a higher average number of shares outstanding because of the discounted treasury DRIP. It was down $03 compared to last year. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:23:19CapEx was down $273,000,000 this quarter. We remain on track to reduce capital investment by $500,000,000 in 2025 in line with our plan. The CapEx reduction, lower cash taxes and higher cash from working capital drove a $713,000,000 year over year increase in Q1 free cash flow. Turning to Bell CTS on slide 19. Starting with a high level summary of q one subscriber metrics. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:23:48Retail Internet net adds of, 9,500 were down versus an exceptionally strong Q1 last year. In addition to slowing industry growth due to fewer newcomers and less new fiber footprint expansion, our result this quarter reflected our consistent strategy to balance subscriber growth with financial performance. Importantly, customers continue to choose fiber because we offer a superior product with a symmetrical speed advantage over cable. Where we have fiber, our subscriber loadings and market share gains remain strong. Our fiber to the home customer base now accounts for 68% of our total retail Internet subscriber base. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:24:29Moving to wireless. We recorded a small net loss in total mobile phone subs in q one compared to 25,000 net adds last year. This was a function of a 7.7% decrease in gross activations, reflecting a slower market. However, consistent with our operating strategy to focus on margin accretive subscriber acquisition, we gained 25,000 net new customers on the main Bell brand. Notably, postpaid churn remained stable in Q1 following nine consecutive quarters of year over year increases. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:01While it remains higher than we'd like, we're pleased with the improving trajectory. Managing our churn will continue to be a top priority. Mobile phone ARPU was down 1.8%. This represents a second straight quarter of improvement in the year over year rate of decline. Our ARPU result this quarter reflected sustained competitive pricing pressure and lower roaming due in part to decreased travel to The US. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:27Moving to Bell CTS Financials. Internet revenue was up 2.4%. Solid result showing we're striking the the right balance between sub growth and disciplined pricing. We also saw continued strength in business solutions where revenue grew 8% over last year. This was driven by higher sales of technology solutions as well as acquisitions made over the past year. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:25:50Wireless service revenue was down dot 8%. This is a notable improvement from the 1.5% decline in q four. We expect the rate of decline will continue to improve going forward as ARPU improves. However, the industry will continue to feel the impacts of the pricing levels in market over the last twelve months for a while longer. Wireless product revenue was down $60,000,000 this quarter. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:26:14The year over year decline was the result of lower sales of mobile devices to large enterprise customers in the government sector as well as the loss of revenue from the source store closures in '24 and conversions to Best Buy Express. Our EBITDA result was in line with plan. Notably, margin increased 20 points over last year to 45 dot 7%, the direct result of our significant and ongoing focus on cost management as evidenced by a 2.7% reduction in operating costs this quarter. Turning over to Bell Media on slide 20. Continued digital momentum and strong overall financial performance marked by a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue and EBITDA growth. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:26:58Digital revenues were up 12%. This was mainly on the back of strong Crave D2C streaming growth, which drove a 22% increase in Crave subscribers to three dot 8,000,000. Notably, direct to consumer streaming subscriptions now comprise the majority of total Crave subscribers. Total advertising revenue increased for a fifth straight quarter on the strength of digital, live sports, and events, increased spending related to the federal election, and the contribution of OutEdge Media. Subscriber revenue growth of seven dot 8% was driven by continued direct consumer crave and sports streaming growth. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:27:37Media EBITDA was up 35 dot 9%, driving a substantial four dot four point increase in margin to 20.5%. Really a nice performance by media by growing revenue, EBITDA, and margins. Turning to slide 21. Our balance sheet is very healthy with 4 dot 7,000,000,000 of available liquidity and pension solvency surpluses totaling 3,800,000,000.0 at the end of Q1. We ended Q1 with a net debt leverage ratio of below 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA compared to 3.8 times at the end of Q4. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:28:13The decrease can be attributed to the combined impact of $4,400,000,000 in hybrid notes offerings issued in advance of the Ziply Fiber transaction and repurchases of bonds trading at a discount to principal value. We are highly focused on deleveraging our balance sheet with the execution of our plan toward a net debt leverage ratio of approximately 3.5 times adjusted EBITDA by the end of twenty twenty seven. The plan includes substantial free cash flow generation, divestiture of non core assets and applying incremental retained cash resulting from the revised dividend level toward paying down debt. Our updated dividend payout policy of 40% to 55% of free cash flow is reflective of a balanced approach to capital allocation. This policy range allows us to fund our capital allocation priorities, which are to optimize the balance sheet, invest for growth and return capital to shareholders. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:29:09To wrap up on Slide 22, we remain confident in our proven ability to deliver under any circumstances, backed by the best networks and services, our ongoing business transformation, consistent operational execution and cost discipline. We're laser focused on the key strategic priorities that Mirko outlined to create long term value for shareholders. I'd also notice that I am reconfirming our financial guidance targets for 2025 with the annualized common dividend at $1.75 per share. I will now turn the call back over to Richard and the operator to begin Q and A. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:29:45Thanks, Curtis. Before we start, I want to remind everyone that due to time constraints this morning because of our AGM that is taking place after this call, to please limit yourselves to one question and a brief follow-up so that we can get to as many in the queue as possible. With that, Matthew, we are ready to take our first question. Operator00:30:05Thank you. The first question is from Mehri Yaghi from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:30:12Great. Thank you for taking my question. Never easy decisions when companies decide to cut the dividends, but doing it for the right reasons I think it's very good. I wanted to ask you in terms of your leverage targets that you mentioned in your prepared remarks and in your presentation, do they include any asset sales that have not been announced yet? And just a follow-up in terms of wireless. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:30:47When we look at gross loading in the environment that you're operating in, do you think that Q1 was a apparent quarter or this is more the environment that you're going to be probably in for the rest of the year? Thank you. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:31:07Thanks for the question, Meyer. In terms of the leverage targets, you know, our plan remains as we announced couple of months ago to sell the $7,000,000,000 in assets that includes MLSE, Northwest Tel, and a couple other processes that we have on the go. So it it basically factors in what we, what we announced last quarter. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:31:32On, thanks for the question, Mehrotz Mirko. On the, the wireless question, I give you a May maybe a bit of a a broader answer, but but I'll basically, to to answer a very specific question, but but more context. So I would say that if you looked at early on in q one, we were seeing some pricing stability green shoots. I think in back half of q one, there was a reversion to kind of frothy pricing activity across the industry. So I think you see from that the overall industry loadings in including ours are affected by the macro environment as well, including the clampdown on immigration. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:32:11And and then there's the kind of impact of pricing. So if you put the two together, we decided not to not to go after nonaccretive loadings. So what you the numbers behind the numbers is that we had pretty strong performance on the Bell brand again, and we had strong performance on, on cross sell. And our wireless product margins remained positive. So I think now to end that's the context for q one. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:32:39Now to answer your specific question, as we're we look into q two and and the progress so far, we see the metrics trending in the right direction for sure, and we see ARPU decline improvement. We're seeing churn improvement. Our sales were okay in q one, and as we improve churn, I think that's going to deliver, you know, what investors are expecting. Maher YaghiManaging Director at Scotiabank00:33:06Thank you. Operator00:33:08Thank you. Our next question is from Drew McReynolds from RBC. Please go ahead. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:33:17Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning. I guess first on the 2025 reiteration of guidance. Marco, you began to talk about Q2, and I understand visibility is not great. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:33:30Just want to get a sense of the working assumptions in terms of reiterating guidance with respect to the competitive environment and macro. We're just trying to assess, I guess, your degree of confidence in keeping within your existing guidance range. And then my follow-up just on the target 3.5x leverage for 2027. So great, obviously, to get a target out there. Simplistically, if I kind of run that through my forecast, including kind of the noncore asset sales that you've announced, the aggregate $7,000,000,000 I get a leverage by 2027 that's just a little 0.2x, 0.3x lower than 3.5x. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:34:19So I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything else here, whether it's EBITDA growth or higher kind of CapEx investment given the announcement this morning. Just any other big picture puts and takes that you know, may help reconcile that. And if I need to take that offline with Curtis, that's great. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:34:37Yeah. Hi, Drew. Thanks for the question. Yeah. We delevered in q one as we issued the the hybrids. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:34:45Thought it was a good idea to to issue hybrids to delever, given the kind of uncertainty in the market. So once we close Zipply, leverage would go back up given we're assuming Zipply Fiber, debt as well. And going forward, as you say, free cash flow growth, asset sales. Then you made a comment about, funding needs. The the funding needs at the partnership are actually quite limited given, our partnership with PSP and the ability to lever at the partnership level. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:35:16So as Mirko said, the partnership by itself actually improves our free cash flow by over a billion dollars in the first three years. So, all of that will lead us to, better free cash flow and deleveraging. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:35:29On the first question, Drew, it's Mirko. I just you know, in terms of the the reconfirming of guidance, you know, if you go back to February, and, when we provided guidance for the year, that's why we had a a view of what the year would look like. And, therefore, we put the ranges in place that we did, you know, kinda with a fairly relative terms, fairly wide range on on either end, to, to acknowledge the environment that we thought we would be in. So we're in a position to to reconfirm that guidance today. Drew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital Markets00:36:06K. Thank you. Operator00:36:09Thank you. Our next question is from Vince Valentini from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:36:16Thanks very much. First, just to clarify on guidance as well. Dollars 300,000,000 gain on the bond redemptions helped your free cash flow in the first quarter, but you've not changed the guidance. Should you be at least trending to the high end of that free cash flow guidance given that boost, which I'm pretty sure you didn't expect when you gave us the guidance originally in February? And then on Zipline joint venture, can you just confirm you would be the exclusive retail partner on the Network Fiber Co? Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:36:47And the extra 6,000,000 homes, is that all planned construction, or could some of that be buying existing assets in combination with, CapEx? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:36:59Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. It's Mirko. On the first well, I'll answer the last two questions first. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:37:07So, yes, the plan is for, Ziply Fiber to be the exclusive tenant on the network. And on, fiber, and on reaching the additional 6,000,000 homes and you asked a question there about the possibility of m and a. Like, right now, the focus is, closing the Ziply Fiber transaction. And shortly after that, we'll be in a position to close Network Fiber Co, which is the strategic partnership. Then the focus is gonna be to execute on the build plan in in that attractive, US market. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:37:38So those are those are I highlight that for a reason. That's gonna be the focus. If down the road, we see we can more efficiently hit build targets through m and a, the goal will be to do so, but within the partnership and, without, intending to veer off of our deleveraging targets that we've expressed to all of you today. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:04Thanks. And then, Vince, the the gain on the repurchase. So while we, we're able to reduce our debt amount, principal amount by over 500, the actual gain is not included in our free cash flow. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:38:19The 798,000,000 in the first quarter did not include that 300,000,000, Curtis? Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:24Correct. It, the the outperformance is largely, working capital and cash cash tax timing. Vince ValentiniManaging Director at TD Cowen00:38:32Okay. I may have to take you offline because I don't see where it's backed out in your numbers, but I'll trust you. Thank you. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:38:39Thank you. Operator00:38:41Thank you. Our next question is from Matthew Griffiths from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:38:48Hi. Thanks for taking the question. On the timing of this the PSP kind of network fiber co, how should we think about that? I mean, obviously, I know you're focused on closing things first. But is it what is the timeframe generally for the 6,000,000 homes passed? Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:39:10And is the 1,500,000.0 billion dollars contribution from PSP, is that directly tied to the $6,000,000 passing number? Or is that just the initial investment? And to achieve the 6,000,000 additional funding is required? Any detail would be helpful in understanding how this all how the numbers that are presented kind of tie together. And then just quickly on the 25,000 net adds on the main Bell brand, I was curious how that compares year over year. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:39:42Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:39:44Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. So on, so it's a long the the partnership is a long term, partnership through, through the infra side of PSP, as I mentioned. So, you know, the the the goal will be to, get to the 6,000,000 homes over over time. You can't you can't build instantaneously, so that will take time. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:08And the the commitment, that we express in terms of the the financial contribution that will be provided over time as we build. So that's that's the intent there. And as I mentioned, we'll be we'll be providing debt financing at that partnership level of as well to to help fund that program. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:36And then on the, Bell brand, Meta? Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:39Yeah. I was looking for it. So that's why there was a little bit Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:42Oh, sorry. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:40:42No. No. That's why there was a little bit of a stall. So, it's down 9,000 year over year. Matt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch00:40:49Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate the, clarity. Operator00:40:56Thank you. Our next question is from Sebastiano Petty from JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:04Hi, good morning everyone. Just one quick follow-up on the $1,500,000,000 Is that a capital call or a lump sum payment that you'll have to make? And then just following up on Drew's question, just thinking about the delevering profile or the 3.5 net debt leverage target over time, we're just a lot of questions, lot of inbounds from investors just trying to understand or square the math there. I mean you have $7,000,000,000 of asset sales coming through. You have $2,000,000,000 of ZipLee debt that's coming on. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:35That implies pretty significant delevering. But then it sounds like you're going to be relevering. So is there a downgrade to free cash flow that we should be thinking about, particularly in light of the dividend? You have $2,000,000,000, you know, without the dividend payment of cash each year. I'm just trying Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:54to square that math there. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:41:56And then also lastly on the dividend, sorry, Curtis. You know, why why $1.75? Why did you land there? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:42:05Okay. So, I'll I'll Curtis will answer the free cash flow, question, but let me let me address, the other two. Your first question, same, essentially what Matthew asked me. So it's going to the contributions to Network Fiber Co are over time as we build. So it's not a onetime payment. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:42:27The third question on why a dollar 75, on that one, the board considered a range of options, as I'm sure you can imagine. And and this is the level that the BCE board believes gives us the flexibility to achieve our capital allocation objectives. And, you know, they're on page 15 of our presentation. So it's optimized the balance sheet, essentially accelerate deleveraging and and optimize the cost of capital. The flexibility to invest for growth, it's incumbent on us to continue to grow this franchise and and then, you know, return deliver total shareholder returns to our shareholders by being a sustainable dividend paying company. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:43:07So that's and so, you know, of the range of options that we had considered and and taking in the input of of investors over time, that's the number that the board felt gave us that flexibility. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:43:19And then to address your your leverage question, Sebastiano, so the $7,000,000,000 of asset sales is the gross number, but the MLSE proceeds so the net proceeds from the $4,700,000,000 sale of MLSE are part of the sources and uses to acquire Ziply Fiber. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:43:44Got it. Understood. And then maybe so the open access partnership, I guess, I mean, yes, maybe The US is behind in terms of fiber build out in The US, but relative to Canada. But with The US built 10,000,000 fiber passings last year on pace to build another 10,000,000 over the next several years. We have very long term, well capitalized companies chasing additional passings. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:09Just trying to what gives you comfort, I guess, maybe in the the greenfield opportunity of getting to that incremental five, 5,000,000 that you guys have outlined above and beyond the three that you originally talked about with Zipley? Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:21Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:22Oh, we we've done we've done the work in our due diligence on the extent of passings that are there and and ready to be built to at a a low cost to build. So we've done some extensive due diligence on that. So we are quite comfortable as is the Ziply fiber team, as you can imagine. And on the first part, you said open open access, Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:45but I don't know Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:45what you meant there, as Vince asked. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:48Sorry. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:44:49Yeah. Sorry. It's more of the wholesale partnership. Just, yeah. So not just an open access partnership. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:44:56The partnership is just to be clear, the partnership is not an open access partnership, just to be clear on that. And then we Yep. We also will be able to get to those 6,000,000 homes, which we've, you know, kind of, like I said, done extensive work on at a at an attractive cost of capital given the structure that we've established with PSP. And I I'd say PSP is also a very experienced telecom infrastructure, investor, and and they see the potential here in The US and particularly with Zipline Fiber, which they're already a shareholder of and working with us given our expertise. Sebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP Morgan00:45:33Thank you. Operator00:45:36Thank you. Our next question is from Jerome Zubay from Desjardins Securities. Please go ahead. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:45:44Hey, thank you. Thanks for taking my question. First is on the acceleration of fiber deployment. Actually, it looks like an acceleration. I'm not sure the time frame is comparable. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:45:56And it looks to be significant. So I'm trying to see what is the rationale behind that. Is it now that your capital structure is in a better place that you can afford to do that? Or maybe are you seeing additional opportunity? And the second one, I mean, are going to be trying to figure out what the pro form a free cash flow is gonna be, pro form a, the infra co, and the acceleration. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:46:24So any detail you can provide? Are you investing more in terms of free cash net of all the transactions you are announcing this morning? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:46:35Thanks, Yawam. So on the acceleration point, I just wanna clarify. So when we announced Zipline Fiber initially, we indicated that they had a base case build plan to get to about 3,000,000 homes by 2029. And with BCE's scale and resources, we would accelerate that 3,000,000 homes to 2028. So that doesn't change. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:47:00We think we'll get to around 3,000,000 homes by 2028. '2 million of those of those 3,000,000 and most and those 3,000,000 will largely be in the four Pacific Northwest states in which Sipley Fiber currently operates. What what's different here is, you know, at close, we'll have 1,500,000 of those 3,000,000 already done. There's another 500,000 copper lines in Ziply Fiber ILEC footprint that we need to upgrade to fiber by 2028. That will be funded by BCE. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:47:31The other million homes will be part of the partnership. So it's it's a different way of getting to the same 3,000,000 homes in a way that's immediately free cash flow, kinda immediately improves the free cash flow profile of BCE by the billion dollars that I mentioned given the the support of PSP. It strengthens and increases our ability to capture that fiber opportunity. And in terms of the additional 5,000,000 homes, therefore, those will be tackled over time beyond 2028 with PSP as a world class financial partner. So, therefore, that's gonna accelerate Zipline Fibers growth and accelerate and provide it with, you know, expanded growth potential, again, in a financially flexible way given that we'd be doing it through the strategic partnership. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:48:25So all, you know, all told, we're gonna be enhancing the returns associated with, the Ziply fiber investment. Not to mention that, you know, it's it's already, you know, looking more accretive accretive than in November of twenty twenty four given the management team's performance even since we announced the deal. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:48:48Then, Jerome, just to to pile on, you asked a question about the free cash flow. I think one other input. So we had said in, in November, CapEx, pro form a for Zipline would live within the 16 and a half percent c to I envelope. Given the partnership with PSP, we expect that's gonna be close to 14 and a half percent. And then after, after Zipline has built out the 500,000 locations within its ILEC footprint, as Mirko mentioned, then we would expect that c to I percentage to, drop from there. Jérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins Securities00:49:28Thank you. Operator00:49:30Thank you. Our next question is from Patrick Ho from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:49:38Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Just two questions for me. The first question is, can you guys talk about how you guys are thinking about the new government's impacts on key areas like TPI and immigration? And then the the second question I had is you guys upsized your cost savings target goal by 500,000,000 to 1,500,000,000.0. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:50:00Can you just unpack, the various buckets that are within that additional 500,000,000 cost savings and just where these items come from? Thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:50:10Yeah. I'll take both. On the, on the business transformation, like I said in my remarks, we've been quite successful, on the initiatives we've, we've undertaken since 2022, and that's delivered the 500,000,000 that I that I've outlined and I've shared before. And and that's, you know, that's one of the key drivers that allows us to increase margins across BCE quarter after quarter. In terms of, the initiatives, just to keep it to keep it, kinda quick and simple, it's things like automation, use of AI, consolidating billing stacks, modernizing ordering stacks, obviously, continue on the copper to fiber migration, self serve, self install, use of chatbots, virtual agents, including, voice. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:50:53So those are the kinds of things. And and we're also actually you know, we're relying in part on the expertise of Ateco, the folks at Ateco to help drive workflow automation and and unlocking the value from our Salesforce and ServiceNow environments. And if you think about it, there are significant learnings there, which we, of course, can bring to the benefit of our enterprise customers as we drive growth through tech services. So we're both, you know, on an op when we go to the customers, so we're both an operator because the things we're suggesting our enterprise customers do, we're doing for ourselves through Ateco. So that's, the answer on, on the business transformation. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:33And the first one was first question. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:51:36TPIO. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:37Oh, TPIO. Yeah. Working with government. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:38So thank you. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:39Thank you, Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:51:39Richard. We're looking forward to having constructive dialogue with the new, federal government, and top of the list in terms of, of topics would be the fighter fiber resale file. I think it comes down, comes down to this. I we've celebrated our 40 birthday just last week. And for a hundred forty five years, we've been building critical infrastructure, in Canada for Canadians to connect Canadians, and that allows Canada to grow. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:52:15Right? Because if you think about the the networks that our industry provides, you know, you need it for everything from AI to cloud services to banking to connecting with your loved ones to entertaining yourself, everything. And so we wanna continue to do that. And in order to continue to do that at the levels which we've been doing it, you do need ultimately an environment that encourages investment. And, you know, allowing the largest players in the market to resell services on each other's networks is actually a direct disincentive to investment. Mirko BibicCEO, President & Director at BCE00:52:51And, it's gonna undermine the goal to have more resiliency and connect more Canadians, particularly in, in rural Canada. So, know, very and intend to take a very constructive approach, and if it's a logical position we have, and, and we're looking forward to the dialogue. Patrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan Stanley00:53:12Great. Thank you. Operator00:53:14Thank you. Our next question is from Aravinda Galappathige from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:53:22Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with the follow-up. I just wanted to make sure I heard you correctly. So the CapEx intensity ratio beyond 2025, it sounds like basically you will not exceed 14.5%. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:53:38That would be sort of the new high point. I just wanted to confirm that. And secondly, based on sort of the business transformation cost reductions that you talked about with respect to severance and restructuring cash costs, I mean, was $330,000,000 last year. You know, how should we should should that kind of be sort of the standard for the next sort of next couple of years? I wanted to confirm that as well. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:54:09So thanks, Aravinda, for the question. Yeah. I I think 14 and a half is the right range. I don't know if it's quite under 14 and a half, but it's in and around 14 and a half. Obviously, it, it depends a little bit on on how fast we're driving subscriber growth and and demand CapEx that comes along with that, but in in the 14 and a half percent range is is a good estimate. Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:54:32And in terms of in terms of the cost reductions and and cost to actually capture those, I would say these past couple of years have been higher on the, onetime costs. There's still gonna be some costs going forward to, to to be able to capture benefits of transformation, but I I would expect the cost to be going down over time as it's more and more, process improvement as well. Aravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity Inc00:55:01Okay. Thank you. I'll pass the line. Operator00:55:06Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Benjian. Richard BengianDirector of IR at BCE00:55:13Thanks again for your participation on the call this morning. As usual, I will be available throughout the day for follow-up questions or clarifications. Thanks, and have a Curtis MillenExecutive VP & CFO at BCE00:55:22great day. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Operator00:55:28Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesRichard BengianDirector of IRMirko BibicCEO, President & DirectorCurtis MillenExecutive VP & CFOAnalystsMaher YaghiManaging Director at ScotiabankDrew McReynoldsManaging Director - Global Research, Telecommunications & Media at RBC Capital MarketsVince ValentiniManaging Director at TD CowenMatt GriffithsResearch Analyst at Bank of America Merrill LynchSebastiano PettiSenior Research Analyst at JP MorganJérôme DubreuilAnalyst at Desjardins SecuritiesPatrick HoResearch Associate at Morgan StanleyAravinda GalappatthigeManaging Director - Institutional Equity Research at Canaccord Genuity IncPowered by