VANCOUVER — Telus experienced a “strong” third quarter with revenues reaching $3.77 billion, an 11% increase compared to the same quarter last year, primarily due to a spike in wireless subscribers, the company said Thursday.
The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by 8.2% to $1.35 billion due to higher revenue growth and improved wireless equipment margins, partially offset by incremental employee benefits expense due to recent business acquisitions and increased costs to support its growing customer base. Adjusted EBITDA was 6.4% when excluding the net gain from the sale of Vancouver office tower Telus Garden, as well as restructuring and other costs.
Telus’s net income of $447 million in the third quarter of 2018 was up 10% compared to the same period of last year as EBITDA growth was partly offset by higher depreciation and amortization due to growth in its asset base resulting in part from business acquisitions as well as increased financing costs.
“Telus reported strong operational and financial results for the third quarter, including robust customer growth across both the wireless and wireline segments of our business. This was buttressed by a continued excellent performance in wireless and wireline customer loyalty and lifetime revenue,” said president and CEO Darren Entwistle, in the news release announcing the results. “Importantly, the Telus team continues to achieve industry-leading postpaid wireless churn, and realized record third quarter high-speed Internet and TV retention levels. This performance was driven by our team’s relentless focus on providing exceptional customer experiences, and was anchored by the ongoing generational investments we are making in our leading broadband wireline and wireless networks, both of which are hallmarks of Telus’ successful, long-term growth strategy.”
In wireless, network revenue increased by 2.2% to $1.5 billion, reflecting continued customer growth and a larger proportion of customers selecting plans with larger data buckets or periodically topping up their data buckets. This was partly offset by declining chargeable data usage and the competitive environment putting pressure on rate plan prices, Telus said.
In wireline, data services revenue increased by 15% to $1.2 billion, reflecting higher customer care and business services contracting revenues due to growth in business volumes including recent business acquisitions and recovery of organic growth, increased Internet and enhanced data service revenues from higher revenue per customer and continued high-speed Internet subscriber growth, increased Telus Health revenues driven by business acquisitions, revenues from our home and business security service offerings and increased Telus TV revenues from subscriber growth.
In the quarter, Telus said that it gained 199,000 new wireless, high-speed Internet and Telus TV customers, up 47,000 (or 31%) over the same quarter a year ago. These total net additions included 145,000 wireless net additions, including 109,000 postpaid net additions; 36,000 high-speed Internet subscribers and 18,000 Telus TV customers.
The company’s total wireless subscriber base of 9.2 million is up 3.7% from a year ago, reflecting a 4.5% increase in its postpaid subscriber base to 8.2 million. In addition, its high-speed Internet connections of 1.8 million are up 6.3% year-over-year and its Telus TV subscriber base stands at 1.1 million.
Telus also announced Thursday that Denise Pickett, American Express's chief risk officer and president of global risk, banking and compliance, has joined its Board of Directors effective November 1.
Telus’s full financial results for the third quarter of 2018 are available here.
