For the first time since 2018, Group flash Returns to dividend distribution. The Group’s Board of Directors has decided to distribute 50% of the semi-annual net profit (NIS 240 million) due to Bezeq Lines’ strong results, mainly and the improvement in Pelephone, which has improved greatly due to the return of flights and revenue from roaming services.
The group recorded a 1.1% increase in revenues to NIS 8.82 billion – the first increase in revenues since 2016. The group’s net profit in 2021 amounted to NIS 1.18 billion, an increase of 48.6%.
Wired Bezeq: 120,000 fiber subscribers
Bezeq Lines’ revenues grew by 0.6% in the past year and amounted to NIS 4.18 billion, compared with NIS 4.15 billion in the corresponding year last year. The company reports that a year after its launch, the company’s fiber optic network already reaches 1.17 million households in Israel with about 120,000 connected subscribers. This is the first time the company has announced the number of subscribers connected to Fiber.
Bezeq Kavi’s operating profit increased by 2.5% and amounted to NIS 1.74 billion. Bezeq Kavi’s EBITDA grew by 4% to NIS 2.68 billion, and net profit also increased by 2.2% and amounted to NIS 1.06 billion.
The company reported that it expects to reach a fiber-optic deployment of 1.4 million households this year. Free cash flow in 2021 amounted to NIS 1.03 billion, a decrease of 16.7%, which was mainly due to the increase in investments due to the deployment of fiber.
Bezeq International’s and yes’s revenues are declining
As for Bezeq International’s activity, the reports show that its revenues in the past year amounted to NIS 1.2 billion, a decrease of more than 3% compared to revenues in 2020. The activity recorded a profit of NIS 8 million in 2021 compared to a large loss of NIS 275 million in 2020. At the same time, there was an improvement in the abandonment rate of subscribers, which stood at 25.3% at the end of the year compared to 30.2% in 2020.
Revenues from yes’s television operations decreased by 1% and amounted to NIS 1.27 billion, similar to revenues in 2020. Net operating income jumped by 25% to NIS 30 million, compared with a profit of NIS 24 million in the previous year. Yes’s subscription abandonment rate dropped from 21% to 15% last year, and the total number of subscribers increased by about 1% and amounted to 563,000. Subscribers of the yes + and STINGTV streaming services jumped to about 250,000 (about 44% of all the company’s subscribers). The average monthly income from a subscriber decreased by NIS 2 compared to 2020 and stood at NIS 188.
Gil Sharon, Chairman of Bezeq, stated that “the excellent financial results are mainly due to an improvement in the performance of the Pelephone and Yes companies, along with a continued increase in Bezeq Kavi’s Internet activity, thanks to the successful deployment of fiber optics. At the same time, we managed to reduce the net debt in 2021 by about 10% to NIS 6.1 billion. “The good results, the strong cash flow and the reduction of the debt, allow us to return to the outline of distributing dividends to shareholders, and to announce a policy according to which the company will distribute to its shareholders, every six months, a cash dividend at 50% of half-yearly profit.”
Dudu Mizrahi, CEO of Bezeq, added that “after many years of continuous erosion in the company’s revenues, we are concluding a second year in a row of growth. “Revenue of landline telephony, which has eroded along with the reduction of regulated prices in the wholesale market, has intensified the challenge of maintaining the growth outline, which has been achieved through sharp growth in revenues from business communications services, cloud services and retail Internet services for private customers.”