Montréal, Québec – Quebecor Inc. (“Quebecor” or “the Corporation”) today reported its consolidated financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Quebecor consolidates the financial results of its wholly owned Quebecor Media Inc. (“Quebecor Media”) subsidiary.
 

First quarter 2022 highlights

• Revenues: $1.09 billion, down $3.1 million (-0.3%) from the same period of 2021.

• Adjusted EBITDA: $442.1 million, down $10.6 million (-2.3%).

• Net income attributable to shareholders: $121.4 million ($0.51 per basic share), an increase of $0.1 million ($0.02 per basic share).

• Adjusted income from continuing operating activities: $128.7 million ($0.54 per basic share), a decrease of $1.2 million (increase of $0.02 per basic share).

• Adjusted cash flows from operations: $316.1 million, up $8.5 million (2.8%).

• In the Telecommunications segment, quarterly revenues were down $10.6 million (-1.2%), adjusted EBITDA was up $9.1 million (2.0%), and adjusted cash flows from operations were up $31.7 million (10.1%).

• Videotron Ltd. (“Videotron”) increased revenues from mobile services and equipment by $20.1 million (8.7%) and from Internet access services by $2.0 million (0.7%) in the first quarter of 2022.

• Net increase of 13,800 (0.2%) revenue-generating units (RGUs) in the first quarter of 2022, including 24,500 (1.5%) connections to the mobile telephony service, 17,500 (3.5%) subscriptions to over-the-top (“OTT”) video services, and 5,300 (0.3%) subscriptions to Internet access service.

• The Media and Sports and Entertainment segments increased their revenues by $7.0 million (4.0%) and $2.9 million (9.3%), respectively.
   

Comments by Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor
 

In the first quarter of 2022, Quebecor continued to perform well in a competitive environment in Québec, increasing RGUs in mobile, Internet access and OTT services, and growing the market share of TVA Network and the specialty channels.

 

To maintain its leading position amidst the accelerating proliferation of content and of distribution platforms, the Corporation stepped up its spending on content. While these investments had a short-term adverse impact on profitability, as evidenced by the 2.3% decline in adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2022, the Corporation maintained financial discipline: we generated 2.8% growth in adjusted cash flows from operations and increased available liquidity to $1.65 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Videotron generated $344.6 million in adjusted cash flows from operations in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 10.1%. Videotron’s flagship mobile telephone and Internet access services continued to attract growing numbers of customers, with increases of 123,200 connections, or 8.2%, and 41,200 customers, or 2.3%, respectively, over the past 12 months. Driven by rich and diverse content, our OTT services also performed strongly, posting a 9.0% increase over the past 12 months. With their diverse, constantly updated selection of original content, Vrai and Club illico now have more than half a million subscribers, a strong indication of the soundness of our choices and investments in the production of Québec content.

The recent Competition Bureau decision against the Rogers Communications Inc. (“Rogers”) bid to acquire the assets of Shaw Communications Inc. (“Shaw”), coupled with statements from the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), allow us to look with increasing favour on the expansion of our wireless business, in view of the prospect that we will have the alternatives of acquiring Shaw’s wireless assets, which might have to be divested by Rogers, or launching a telecom offering in the Canadian provinces where we have acquired - despite TELUS’ legal challenge - the spectrum needed to start up our operations. We believe that these alternatives position us very favourably, as governmental and administrative authorities, including the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, pursue the public policy of establishing the conditions for true competition in wireless services in Canada. Our undeniable success, as evidenced by our market share of more than 22% in Québec, demonstrates our multidimensional expertise. We would apply that expertise with equal energy in the other parts of Canada. The opportunities are many and the alternatives promising.

The increase in investment by TVA Group Inc. (“TVA Group”), particularly in variety programming and series for the TVA Network, has proven to be a sound move. TVA Network gained 0.7 points in market share in the first quarter of 2022 and had four of the top five shows in Québec during the period. The combined market share of the TVA Network and the specialty channels was 40.6% in the first quarter of 2022, up 1.2 points from the same quarter of 2021. As a result of the increase in total advertising revenues from broadcasting activities, combined with the impact of higher volume in production and distribution services, as well as in film and audiovisual services, TVA Group posted a $3.7 million increase in revenues in the first quarter of 2022.

We have a solid foundation on which to build and we’re upbeat about the future. We are staying focused on the disciplined execution of our strategic priorities and sound management of our assets, guided by our commitment to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders.



 

For more details and to consult definitions of "adjusted EBITDA", "adjusted income from continuing activities", "adjusted cash flows from operations" and "revenue-generating unit" please refer to the attached PDF file for the complete version of the press release.

 

Information :

Hugues Simard
Chief Financial Officer
Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc.
hugues.simard@quebecor.com
514 380-7414
 

Communications department
Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc.
medias@quebecor.com
514 380-4572