Proximus (PROX), Belgium’s largest telecommunications company with a market capitalization of €2.33 billion, reported growth in its first-quarter earnings for 2025, driven by increases in domestic and global revenue. The company reaffirmed its guidance for the year, maintaining a focus on expanding its fiber and 5G networks. Trading at attractive valuations with a P/E ratio of 4.73, InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently undervalued. Despite facing intensified competition, Proximus continues to leverage its leading network quality to capture market growth.
Key Takeaways
- Group EBITDA increased by 2.8% year-over-year, reaching €481 million.
- Domestic revenue grew by 1.2%, with domestic EBITDA up by 1.5%.
- Proximus Global revenue rose by 2.7%.
- Free cash flow was reported at €81 million, including €130 million from asset sales.
- The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance of approximately 2% underlying EBITDA growth.
Company Performance
Proximus demonstrated solid performance in Q1 2025, with both domestic and international segments contributing to revenue growth. The company’s strategic focus on expanding fiber and 5G coverage appears to be paying off, as evidenced by the increase in subscriptions and customer base. However, the competitive landscape has become more challenging with the entry of new players like Digi, prompting Proximus to reinforce its premium brand positioning.
Financial Highlights
- Group EBITDA: €481 million, up 2.8% year-over-year
- Domestic segment revenue: Up 1.2%
- Domestic EBITDA: Increased by 1.5%
- Proximus Global revenue: Up 2.7%
- Free Cash Flow: €81 million, including €130 million from asset sales
- CapEx: €270 million, on track for an annual guidance of €1.3 billion
Outlook & Guidance
Proximus remains optimistic about its financial outlook, reaffirming its full-year guidance of approximately 2% underlying EBITDA growth. With a strong Financial Health Score of 2.67 (rated "GOOD" by InvestingPro) and an attractive dividend yield of 6.45%, the company continues to deliver value to shareholders. The company anticipates stable domestic revenue and EBITDA and expects updates on fiber collaboration by the end of Q2. Proximus is also progressing with its asset disposal program, with €330 million in proceeds confirmed. For detailed analysis and comprehensive valuation metrics, investors can access the full Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro.
Executive Commentary
"We started the year on a good note," said Jan van Ackolayen, Interim CEO, highlighting the company’s positive performance and strategic initiatives. CFO Marc Reid emphasized the importance of Proximus’s leading networks, stating, "Our leading networks really make a difference." Reid also noted the company’s focus on capturing market growth amidst increasing competition.
Risks and Challenges
- Intensified competition with new market entrants like Digi could pressure pricing and market share.
- Economic uncertainties may impact the global business segment, requiring cautious monitoring.
- Execution of fiber collaboration and asset disposal plans will be critical to achieving financial targets.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s mobile and internet performance for Q2, to which executives expressed confidence. Questions also focused on the progress of fiber collaboration discussions and the impact of macroeconomic conditions on the global segment. Proximus reassured analysts of its commitment to executing synergy plans in its global business.
Proximus continues to navigate a competitive market landscape by leveraging its strong network infrastructure and focusing on strategic growth initiatives. As the company progresses through 2025, maintaining its momentum will be crucial in achieving its financial and operational goals.
Full transcript - Proximus NV (PROX) Q1 2025:
Francois, Conference Coordinator: Hello, and welcome to the Proximus Q1 Results twenty twenty five Analyst Conference Call. My name is Francois, and I’ll be your coordinator for today’s event. Please note this conference is being recorded. And for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions.
I will now hand you over to Nancy Goussons, Investor Relations Lead, to begin today’s call. Thank you.
Nancy Goussons, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus: Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining the Proximus results webcast. We will start with our presentation. And as per usual, we will address any question you may have after.
The presenters for today are the CEO at Interim, Jan van Ackolayen and the group CFO, Marc Reid. For the q and a, we are joined by the residential lead, Jim Castira, as well as by the two business leads, Anne Sophie Lodgerin for the IT part and Renaud Tillmans for the telco part. And we also have our corporate affairs lead, Ben Apple. They will be taking your questions in a moment, but first handing over to Jan to take you through the highlights of today. Jan, please go ahead.
Jan van Ackolayen, CEO (Interim), Proximus: Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to my very first time presenting the Proximus results. Let me take you through the main takeaways from the first quarter, after which Mark will walk you through the achievements in more detail. As you’ve seen in our published report this morning, Proximus started the year on a positive note. With DG now active since mid December, we are clearly operating in a more competitive market.
Nonetheless, our first quarter results show our strong resilience in this new market structure. Overall, this resulted in a strong financial quarter for the domestic segment with both revenue and EBITDA growing year over year. A key driver of our success is without any doubt the leading networks we have in Belgium, with five gs coverage now above 75% and fiber in the street covering more than 43% of the Belgian homes and businesses. On the fiber collaboration plans, we can confirm we are progressing and we expect to be able to come back to you with news by the end of the second quarter. For our global business, we have closed a solid Q1 as well, with especially a strong EBITDA quarter, up from the previous year by just over 15%.
The recent macroeconomic developments is something we will be closely monitoring, remaining vigilant for any potential impact going into the remainder of the year. I also want to flag the progress made for our asset disposal program with now EUR330 million proceeds confirmed, and hence, we are well on track to deliver EUR500 million plus by 2027. So overall, again, we have started the year on a good note and we reiterate the guidance we have set for the full year. Now I hand it over to Marc to comment in more detail on these achievements. Thank you, Jan.
Let me start off with some key financial results. For the domestic segment,
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: we closed the first quarter with growing revenue, up by 1.2 percentage points. Despite the intense competitive landscape, we achieved this thanks to keeping solid operationals in addition to a good landing of the January price indexation. The revenue and especially the increase in services revenue drove higher margin, which more than offset the increase in OpEx. As such, we have closed Q1 with domestic EBITDA growing by 1.5 percentage points. For the Global segment, direct margin was up four percentage points and this combined with lower OpEx has led to a strong EBITDA growth of 15.3 percentage points year over year.
This brings our group EBITDA to £481,000,000 for the first quarter, an increase of 2.8 percentage points. Our CapEx for the quarter was GBP $270,000,000. And for the free cash flow, we ended the first three months with GBP 81,000,000 in total. Excluding the proceeds from the asset sales, the organic free cash flow was negative GBP 36,000,000, improving by £76,000,000 year over year. We’ll take a closer look at this in a minute, but let’s first take a look at the operational results.
As we said in our previous call, at the February, we have indeed ended the first quarter with positive net adds for our residential unit for both Internet and mobile postpaid. This despite the launch of Digi and the subsequent competitor moves, which have increased competition significantly. In spite of this competitive intensity, the residential unit could grow its Internet base by 6,000 subscriptions and for the mobile postpaid by 7,000. Our convergent base grew by 10,000 residential customers in Q1. For our business unit, the Internet base remains broadly stable.
And for the mobile postpaid, we closed the quarter with a net loss of 15,000. About a third of this loss concerns one single contract, which were machine to machine alike cards at very low ARPU. This comes in addition to a limited remaining loss related to a Flemish government contract and other churn because of some aggressive competitor pricing where we keep a value focused approach. The resilience of our residential unit in this new market structure is highly supported by our multi brand strategy, which allows us to use Scarlet and Mobile Vikings brand as a first line of defense against Digi and other low end offers in the market. At the same time, we protect value by positioning the Proximus brand in a premium segment.
Our strategy clearly worked in addressing the market structure change as illustrated on this chart of mobile ports to Digi. The number of customers porting out to Digi has continued its downward trajectory within recent weeks showing even fewer ports. Just so you know, we will not be providing this chart in the future as it’s competitively sensitive information, and I’m sure you understand that. Besides our complementary brands, it’s the Proximus leading networks that really make a difference. At the March, we have reached an important milestone with our five g indoor population coverage now reaching three quarters of the country.
Our mobile network quality received once more external recognition, this time with the OpenSignal Mobile Experience Award. We are proud to have the highest five g indoor coverage in Belgium and are on track to achieve close to a % nationwide coverage by 2026. The fiber deployment is also progressing well, especially in Brussels, where we’re already at a very high coverage of 75% of all homes and businesses. Across Belgium, we now have 2,300,000 fiber homes, meaning a coverage of 38, and including fiber in the street, we’re even above 43%. Our network filling rate continues to grow, now reaching 34%.
At the March, the number of activated fiber customers crossed the 600,000 mark, adding another 43,000 in the first three months of the year. As Jan said at the start of the discussion, with the BIPT, BCA, Telenet and Wire regarding future collaboration on gigabit network projects are progressing well. We currently expect to provide further updates by the end of the second quarter for Flanders. For the South Of Belgium too, the discussions with Orange are progressing. We’ll keep you informed in due time.
For now, we cannot comment further on this topic. Turning to Proximus Global, which also had a good start to the year. New products were launched such as three sixty five Guard and the orchestration platform eSIM Hub, just to name a few. Proximus Global is also partnering with Nokia to explore opportunities by using each other’s marketplaces, bridging the gap between the various industry segments and telecom ecosystem. And last but not least, Global is getting international recognition, winning awards in the digital communication space, a very nice achievement for our three brands and a reflection of our commitment to drive innovation and delivering unmatched value to the global telecom ecosystem.
Let’s now review the Q1 results. I’m assuming you have been through the earnings release, and I’ll proceed quickly on this part. Starting with our domestic revenue, which increased for the first quarter by 1.2 percentage points. As illustrated on the chart, service revenue grew by 1.9%. The first quarter growth was mainly driven by a strong increase in the service revenue of the residential unit.
This thanks to sustained strong operational result and price indexation effective since the January 1, that is again landing well. On the other hand, we had less revenue from terminals, which as you know comes at very low margin. This has also explained the sequential slowdown in total residential revenue growth. The most valuable part of the residential revenue is growing by 3.1% with Convergent revenue up by 6.4% year on year. The ARPA continued to show a positive evolution growing 2.2% including the price indexation and the benefit of continued increase in convergent customers and fiber upselling.
For the business unit, the total revenue was up by 1.5%, including a strong increase in IT services. And especially for IT hardware, there was a very good business traction. Taking a closer look at the B2B revenue from services, the first quarter included another strong growth for IT services as well as a slightly growing revenue from fixed data, which is driven by good growth in Internet services. On the other hand, mobile revenue was down year over year at a similar rate of decline as the last two quarters. This is the combined result of lower customer base compared to last year, mainly due to that one large contract loss in 2024 and some ARPU pressure in a very competitive market.
Fixed voice continued a steady decline due to a lower customer base, while values managed through price increases resulting in a sustained positive ARPU trend. For the Wholesale business, we achieved sustained good growth. In a fixed and mobile services, up by 16.3% for the first quarter. Revenue from interconnect, on the other hand, continues to decline, although this has no meaningful margin impact. For domestic OpEx, we report for the first quarter of twenty twenty five an increase by 3.4 percentage points, so a moderated year over year increase compared to the previous quarter.
This increase mainly reflects some inflation including a year on year impact of the wage indexations of June 2024 and the further indexation in March 2025. Our continued efforts and efficiencies could however more than offset these impacts. Furthermore, in Q1 twenty twenty five, OpEx includes Fibroclar as well as higher cross charging from Orange Belgium, which is EBITDA neutral as we charge Orange for the same amount. Other impacts are related to clarification and customer OpEx. This brings me to domestic EBITDA, which grew for the first quarter by 1.5 percentage points as you can see on the chart, resulting from good growth in direct margin, partially offset by higher OpEx.
Turning now to Proximus Global, for which we closed the first quarter with a solid growth in revenue of 2.7% and direct margin increasing by 4.1 percentage points. For the product group communications and data, we achieved a direct margin growth of 5.5% on a pro form a basis. The main driver was good progress in omnichannel CPaaS services with especially a strong quarter for flash call solutions. Direct margin from other omnichannel solutions such as RCS and WhatsApp also grew from one year back. Proximus Global continues to capture part of the ongoing CPaaS SMS transition, which is reinforced by cost optimizations from the customers in the CPaaS industry.
For P2P voice and messaging, although this is an inherently declining market, Procter’s Global achieved a stable direct margin. The higher margin combined with lower costs, thanks to synergy delivery, resulted in a strong increase in EBITDA, up by 15.3% year over year. Regarding the group CapEx, we closed the first quarter with €270,000,000 and we remain well on track for the outlook we had given for the year at about 1,300,000,000 The decrease from last year is mainly coming from the phasing nature of TV content renewals but also reflects that we are now past the peak of mobile network consolidation as well as our own CapEx build in the dense areas. As we explained before, taking into account the anticipated rollout of period, our CapEx envelope should stay around GBP 1,300,000,000.0 until we have completed the fiber network build, that is to say 2028, with initial drop expected in 2029 and a further drop in later years once customer connection CapEx tails off. This brings me to free cash flow for the first quarter.
As illustrated on the chart, the organic free cash flow for the first quarter was negative £38,000,000 improving from one year back, thanks to the growing EBITDA and a favorable year over year impact from working capital. Also, the lower cash CapEx is a plus with these effects partially offset by higher interest and tax payments. Our total free cash flow includes the proceeds from the sale of data center business for a hundred and 30 million. This brings me to the next topic. The disposal program of our noncore assets, which we launched to support our free cash flow through the high investment period, is progressing very well.
The close agreements will deliver in total cash proceeds of around 330,000,000 by the end of twenty twenty five. The sale of the Luxembourg turrets is pending final regulatory approval and is expected to close in the next sixty days. So overall, we are well on track to generate over GBP 500,000,000 of cash proceeds by the end of twenty twenty seven. With this, I’m at my final slide at our outlook for 2025. We reiterate our expectations of around 2% growth in our underlying EBITDA at the group level.
Following a strong start to the year, we can reaffirm with confidence the guidance given on domestic, anticipating a broadly stable revenue and EBITDA despite the change in market structure and resulting increase in competition. We also closed a solid quarter for Proxims Global. We are watchful of the recent macroeconomic developments and currency movements and closely monitor any headwinds that may pose for the rest of the remainder of the year. And with that, I’ll close my presentation and now hand the line over to your questions.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: The first question comes from the line of Dhruva Shah from UBS. Please go ahead.
Dhruva Shah, Analyst, UBS: Hi, thanks very much for taking the questions. I have three, if that’s okay. So the first is just on the residential performance, which was, as you said, in terms of positive postpaid net adds despite digit entry and despite putting through the price rise in January. But I was just curious in terms of what you’ve seen so far in Q2 in terms of net adds and more broadly competitive dynamics on both broadband and mobile. Second, on global, you flagged potential headwinds from macroeconomic developments going forward.
Will this mainly impact the top line? Or could you see this impacting EBITDA growth as well? And just on the EBITDA growth, could you maybe give us some color on the quantum of synergies you’ve achieved so far? I think if I think back to the profile you broke out in the international webinar, it suggested around CHF 20,000,000 of the CHF 100,000,000 synergies to be realized in year one. So are you close to achieving this and could synergies ramp in the coming quarters?
And just finally, on global again, but more broadly, how are you thinking about the unit strategically going forward? So before you do anything strategically, before crystallizing value there, would you want to see all the synergies come in first, or are you happy to explore options before then? Thanks very much.
Jim Castira, Residential Lead, Proximus: Hi, De Ruval. So this is Giancarcela, residential lead. So on your first question, so on mobile, indeed, in q one, we deliberately faced our reactions with our three brands, with approximately brands only moving in April when it comes to mobile only. So moving into April and the May, so good trending for the second quarter. We actually see the positive impact of this, and so we’re very confident for the second quarter that the mobile KPI will improve.
We see the same on Internet. There, of course, the reason is a bit different. But there, we see that last year, one of our competitors in the beginning of the year had some challenges, which have been fading out in 2025. And so the year over year trending will change, but we see also on Internet in Q2 positive trending versus the results of Q1.
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: Sure. Let me take your questions on global. So as you saw from the results, we’re very pleased with the Q1 results, again, in context of competitive nature of the market. Again, I think the direct margin of the EBITDA is very positive. In terms of what’s going on macroeconomically, it’s it’s it’s as and I’m sure you’ve heard this from from API.
It’s difficult to tell exactly what’s going on. We see, you know, over the last six, eight weeks, there’s been been, many elements going on, geopolitically around the world. So so we’re just, you know, we’re just cautious. We’re watching what’s going on there, and I think the fact really is, you know, the the the you know, our our, you know, large customers and the demand that that may, you know, pose. And as I said, we’ll watch them closely as we go through Q2.
Could that have effect on revenue direct margin? Possibly. But again, as I said, we’re very happy with the Q1 results so far. So it’s more kind of watching brief as we go. In terms of overall synergies, we’re very much on track.
The first year has gone very well. We’ve implemented our a lot of the most of the operating cost synergies that were in plan. And so that’s ramping to the profile that we gave you. We’re not actually giving you a specific number, but I think, again, with the disclosures we gave you before, that’s on track. And as I said, the operating cost ones are very positive and tracking exactly where we expected to them.
In terms of strategically, I think where we are right now is we’re just super focused. As you saw, we put Proximus Global together launched the global organization in December. That organization is super focused on capturing market growth, delivering the synergies. So that’s really what we’re all behind that initial vision and strategy in executing it. And so, you know, we have no plans to to change that that trajectory.
And as we said, given I said, you know, we have a a view that, you know, there needs to be a value crystallization moment. And, we talked about a horizon of post ’20 ’6, and that’s still where we are today.
Dhruva Shah, Analyst, UBS: Thank you very much.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: The next question comes from the line of David Fagman from ING. Please go ahead.
David Fagman, Analyst, ING: Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. First question on business, so B2B and Business Mobile, in particular, do you see in terms of pricing, I read some comment on the tough environment, competitive dynamic there. Do you see a shift in mindset from competition in terms of pricing? In particular, are they more pricing, let’s say, closer to wholesale mobile ARPU, so say, in kind of MVNO sort of level?
So that’s my first question. Then coming back on the residential competitive dynamic you saw in Q1 and so far, could you break it down a little bit, let’s say, zoom a little bit per brand and explain us a little bit what you explained on the pricing. So should we see some down trading, etcetera, as you improve your offer? And last point, on the direct margin for Proximus Global, I think P2P did quite well in Q1. Can you comment on this?
And anything to extrapolate for the rest of the year? And I’m also referring to your Investor Day on so on Proximus Global. So I think it’s a bit of an outperformance, if we do month B2B. Thank you.
Jan van Ackolayen, CEO (Interim), Proximus: Renaud, I’m just managing B2B telco. Yes. I will answer the first question for b two b mobile. In fact, we don’t see a shift in mindset, going towards more mobile or sell ARPU. It’s more and more intense competition on mobile, mainly on the EMEA segment.
And, ourselves, we manage both value and volume, but we will not follow volume at any price.
Renaud Tillmans, B2B Telco Lead, Proximus: Thank you.
Jim Castira, Residential Lead, Proximus: So David, on your question on the dynamics on the residential market, so we haven’t observed significant changes in our installed customer base. So what we do see is that in customers that decide to change from operator, that they now have more choice and that you tend to see a bit more people moving to the B brands than the A brands, but we don’t see big shifts in the installed base. So that part I think is really well managed. And of course, we continue to feed the premiumness of the Proximus brand. Working on fiber, we recently launched our FlexPrice offer where we really put all the power of the fiber network into play.
We also work on innovations to make sure that our customers on the premium brand feel valorized. So that part of the strategy continues to execute very well. So I’m also on the price increase, this has landed very well as well. And I think that’s also confirming, if you look at the NPS of our convergent customers, where we see that the Proximus convergent customer NPS is at 20. So also there, we’re very happy with that result.
So continue to be confident in how we’re executing the strategy. And so on on the revenue side, also confident that we’re gonna be able to continue to grow that part.
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: David, on on Proximus Global, I think, you know, we talked several times about, you know, the the the the advantages of having a, you know, a a a Proximus Global digital communications entity within the the the the the bigger Proximus Group. Right? The suite of products that we’re able to to offer end to end to, to customers across the globe is is is is a key advantage to us. Right? And so in quarter one, we had a very, very good quarter in terms of as I noticed in terms of the shift to omnichannel, in terms of flash call, in terms of cloud communications and eSIM.
So I think those continue to be fantastic businesses for us and direct margin contributed. When you come back to the P2P business, again, we had a great quarter in Q1. Again, that’s all about the team, the reach that we’ve got globally, our relationships with MNOs. And again, clearly there, we’ve been able to manage the right destination mix. So we’re super pleased with that, and we’re taking market share in that space as well.
So I think overall, the team’s been very proud of their achievements and how they manage the various products across our suite. But again, that is one of the key advantages of having this kind of end to end coverage of products across the digital communications suite. And so yes, we’re pleased with Q1 results. Thank you.
David Fagman, Analyst, ING: Thanks very much, Marc. And as a very quick follow-up on your comment, do you think then that the performance we saw in Q1 is rather structural or it is sustainable for the coming quarter?
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: So again, David, David, I’ll put you back. Look, I think, again, we’re super happy with Q1. I think the geopolitical economic situation has impact on our clients, And we’re just monitoring that and we’ll come back to you in July and let you know how everything’s traded through the early part of the summer. So I’ll give you an update in July.
David Fagman, Analyst, ING: Thank you.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: The next question comes from the line of Chris Kippis from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Chris Kippis, Analyst, Degroof Petercam: Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Two from my side. Firstly, I know you will not comment a lot, but I’m just wondering what are actually the reasons for the ongoing postponements regarding the discussions that you have for a fiber deal in the North? And could you share with us a little bit more on potential timing of a fiber deal in the South?
That would also be, of course, convenient. Second question relates to actually your expenses. Of course, we know we you’re having much skewed to the Belgian market, of course. Looking at the FTEs, they were down 1.4% in Q1. Average was about 0.6% in 2024.
But if you look at the FTE evolution, I think when you exclude the FibroClare effect, there’s about a run rate of about 200,000,000 that could leave net net the firm per quarter. Is that a run rate I can work with? Or what how should we see this in 2025? Thank you.
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: Yes, Chris, let me take that. So I mean, there’s no postponement, just to be clear. Think we’ve been talking about coming back on the fiber deal in the North in the first half of the year, and we’re confident to do that. I think the as we’ve said before, look, we’re not going to comment extensively on this. The negotiations are progressing.
I think the fact that it’s taking time again, we talked about this last call, we want to get the best deal for Proximus. Clearly, the discussions are progressing and moving. And so again, we continue to expect to be able to come back in the first half of the year, so in the next couple of months by the time we talk to you in July at our Q2 results. So I think that’s where we are. On South, again, those negotiations are progressing well.
And the timing of those, again, we haven’t picked a time frame for that, but again, it will follow in due course. But you can be rest assured that the South is also progressing. In terms of overall expenses, again, we’ve talked a little bit about the natural attrition of pension levers in the Proximus group. I think that has got an accelerating curve in the next years to come. In terms of giving you a number, we haven’t picked a number, but I think it is going to move upwards from the rate we’ve seen in the last twelve months for sure.
So I think you can start to get yourself a guidance from that perspective. Hopefully, that helps.
Chris Kippis, Analyst, Degroof Petercam: Yes. That certainly helps. Thank you, Mark.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Cotkullisen from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Renaud Tillmans, B2B Telco Lead, Proximus: Hi, everyone. A question on strategy. I do apologize because this one may not be easy to answer given your interim CEO position. But do you have any indications on whether the government or the board is still convinced by the diversification strategy into CPaaS and digital identity? Should we expect this to be a debate or not?
Is it a matter of debate right now in the light of the selection of a new CEO? And maybe still on strategy, the government manifesto a few months ago included their intention to ask operators to move clients to the most attractive packages. Is it something you think you’ll be forced And I may have a follow-up after. Thank you.
Jan van Ackolayen, CEO (Interim), Proximus: Thank you for the question. On the strategy, I can only confirm that with our board, we continue to execute the strategy as defined before. And the short term focus is to execute on the BOLT 25, but no change on the overall strategy with regards also to the global activities.
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: Jim, you wanna take the the question on the the the package changes?
Jim Castira, Residential Lead, Proximus: Yes. So, on the the part linked to discussions at at government, on, moving customers automatically to the best packages. As you know, telco offer is not that simple to decide yourself what would be the best package for a customer. So I think all those elements are still in discussion with the the regulator to see how that legislation needs to be put into action.
Ben Apple, Corporate Affairs Lead, Proximus: Yeah. Adding to that from my side, indeed, this is a piece of legislation that’s still under a lot of discussion. And currently, we also already have a kind of an obligation to indeed advise our clients on this, and this hasn’t led to a lot of problems.
Renaud Tillmans, B2B Telco Lead, Proximus: Okay. Got it. And maybe a follow-up. At Global, I noticed a low labor cost in Q1 compared to previous year, whether I compare it to revenue or to the direct margin. Is it an exceptional quarter or is it a new normal?
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: So, Nicolas, I think, again, I alluded to the execution of our synergies plan. So I think that significant portion of that was executed late q four, early q ’1. And so I think, you know, that is a that is a, you know, good operating workforce cost, and and and and it’s affected by the the, you know, the restructuring of the the workforce. So I think that’s, you know, it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a level that you could consider. I think, clearly, there are other impacts.
Right? So there are investments that we will make, and there are obviously inflationary impacts that are that differ geographically across the world. So but that’s really you know, the the the change was related to our execution of our synergy plan.
Renaud Tillmans, B2B Telco Lead, Proximus: That makes a lot of sense. And if if I can take a bit more of your time, sorry about that. The on the fiber filling rate, it does accelerate year after year. How should we see this going forward? If you can help us understanding how the dynamics work.
Are they kind of a thresholds that typically lead to an acceleration?
Jim Castira, Residential Lead, Proximus: So Nicolas, on that question, so indeed, we continue to be able to move more and more customers to the fiber network. Of course, since we’re still in full deployment phase as well, here, teams continue to add new fiber plugs to our fiber network. And what we see is that the mechanisms that we have been seeing over the last two, three years are still the actual ones to look at, which means that we can migrate roughly 70% of our existing copper customers to the fiber network one year after fiber becomes available in a certain area. And then on top of that, we see nice acquisition results in fiber area. So we’re going to continue to see that fiber filling rate gradually increase.
Of course, at a certain point in time, when you reach your market share for Internet, then it’s gonna start to flatten out. But as long as we’re building, like we’re still doing for the next years, we’re going to continue to see also a growing filling rate of the network.
Renaud Tillmans, B2B Telco Lead, Proximus: That’s very clear. Thank you very much for the answers.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: The next question comes from the line of Mikael DeClec from KBCS. Please go
Jan van Ackolayen, CEO (Interim), Proximus: ahead. Hi, thanks
Nancy Goussons, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus0: for taking my question. The first question would be on DG. I appreciate the slide that you shared for the mobile evolution. I know that for fixed, they’re only rolling out in a very, very limited number of streets in Brussels. But I was just wondering, looking at those streets, did you see a lot of customers shifting?
And maybe also, do you have a view on maybe if DG’s strategy has changed in terms of fiber rollout, given the quite aggressive answer from yourself and other competitors on the mobile pricing? So that would be my first question. And the second one would just be on the fiber net adds, a bit of a step down there in this quarter. And if I also look at the original targets of 50% home passed by the end of twenty twenty five, so you’re still a bit off there. I was just wondering, because you’re now in talks for the collaboration, of course, but when this collaboration is assigned, should we then see a bit of an acceleration of the of the Fibroclar rollout?
Those would be my questions, please.
Marc Reid, Group CFO, Proximus: Jimmy, you want me to take the let let me maybe I’ll take the first one on Digi in terms of the the plans. Michael, look, I think you you see our our our our fiber progress both, build and and commercially. Right? We are super focused on on building and and and monetizing the network, and I think we’re doing a fantastic the teams are doing a fantastic job at doing that. Right?
I mean, Digi has had its its issues obviously in the in the papers. I I don’t wanna comment on that. We’re not we’re not focusing on that. We’re we’re focusing on what we do very, very well. In terms of and I’m sure Jim will reinforce this.
In terms of kind of fixed impact, we’re we’re not we’re not seeing anything. You saw you saw the graph on the on the mobile effect. Jim, do you wanna talk on the net adds and then yeah.
Jim Castira, Residential Lead, Proximus: So so, Michiel, on the the fixed part, I think today, the the footprint the the commercial footprint of DG is is too limited to to be able to see a visible impact. Of course, we monitor on a very granular level, but we don’t see a significant impact on that part. So I think that’s that’s a bit where we stand today, but I think it’s also very early days yet. In terms of fiber net adds from a commercial perspective, the the net adds of q one are at the same level as q one last year. So it seasonality between the quarters.
And I think the same is the case because I guess your question is more linked to the fiber build rollout as well, linking to your 50% Home Pass. So I think also there, we are still on track with our targets, and it’s more seasonality elements rather than a slowing down of the fiber build.
Nancy Goussons, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus0: Okay, great. Good to hear. Thank you.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: There are no further questions, so I’ll hand back to your host to conclude today’s conference.
Nancy Goussons, Investor Relations Lead, Proximus: Thank you. Thank you all for joining us and for your questions. So should you have any follow-up questions, let me know. I’m happy to help you out. I wish you all a lovely weekend.
Bye.
Francois, Conference Coordinator: Thank you for joining today’s call. You may now disconnect.
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