Taiwan Mobile Co Ltd
TWSE:3045
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Taiwan Mobile Co Ltd
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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call. Our chairperson today is Mr. Jamie Lin. Mr. Lin, please, begin your call. I'll be standing by for the Q&A.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Taiwan Mobile's Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Before I start our presentation, let's first go over our disclaimer, as always.
The information contained in this presentation, including all forward-looking information, is subject to change without notice, whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise, and Taiwan Mobile Company Limited, hereafter the Company, undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this presentation.
No representation or warranty either expressed or implied is provided in relation to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information contained herein, nor is the information intended to be a complete statement of the company, markets or developments referred to in this presentation.
All right. Now that's out of the way, let's start with the business overview. Please turn to Page 4 for 2021 highlights. In 2021, all 3 of our main growth engines pumped on all cylinders and delivered solid top line expansion, resulting in a 17% year-over-year increase in our 2021 consolidated revenue.
Thanks to ARPU recovery through successful upselling, Mobile Service revenue increased Y-o-Y the first time since 2016. Despite an already high base, our E-commerce business delivered a 35% revenue surge in 2021.
As for our Home Broadband's business, its revenue growth further expanded to 13%, amid COVID-induced demand and excellent traction of our Double Play packages. Underpinned by the top line expansions we just mentioned, 2021 consolidated EBITDA turned to a 6% Y-o-Y growth, exceeding the guidance we gave that is flat to slightly down by a wide margin.
Next, let's turn to Page 5 for a closer look at our Mobile business. For Taiwan Mobile, 5G penetration more than doubled during 2021; at the same time, lifting monthly fee by 26% for those customers that have upgraded. As a result, mobile and telecom service revenues both turned to Y-o-Y growth for the first -- for the fourth year.
The upselling was achieved through the bundling of premium handsets such as the iPhone 13 and Google Pixel 6 Series. With the focus on 48-month plans as well as our unique Double Play or in Chinese [Foreign Language] and momobile or in Chinese [Foreign Language] packages. Close to 60% of our Double Play subs were for TWD 999 or higher rate plans by the end of 2021.
And our coverage footprint was over 70% of Taiwan's households. In addition, momobile users contribution to momo's e-commerce revenue reached 1.9% in December, a significant increase from the 0.4% a year ago.
Meanwhile, carrying Disney+ as the exclusive telecom operator partner provided solid traction to our Mobile business. We expect it to continue to help us promote premium rate plans, increase customer stickiness and create cross-selling opportunities.
Finally, our customers continue to love our ability to offer them better products and services. And as a result, postpay monthly churn has further declined by 9 basis points to a historical low of 0.87% in 2021. As we enhance our lineup of products and services to offer unique values to different market segments as well as continue to focus on 48-month contract, we expect our growth momentum to continue and churn rate to remain low going forward.
Now let's turn to Page 6 for an update on our E-commerce business. As the leading e-commerce platform in Taiwan, momo delivered stellar results during the annual Double 11 shopping festival, with this e-commerce revenue reaching a historical high in the fourth quarter.
For the full year, revenue grew 35% for the second year in a row, as customer number and stickiness continue to increase. Thanks to economies of scale and operating leverage, momo's e-commerce EBITDA soared by 80% Y-on-Y, translating to 128 basis points of margin expansion to 5.2% in 2021.
On the logistics side, 5 more satellite warehouses were added in the fourth quarter, bringing the total number to 30, that's 8 more than a year ago. In addition to the ongoing construction of the southern distribution center, we secured land for the central distribution center as well. Coupled with the continuous build-out of the satellite warehouse network and in-house delivery fleet, momo is well positioned to continue outperforming its peers.
Now let's take a look at our Broadband business on the next page. In the fourth quarter, we continued to outperform our MSO peers in the Y-o-Y trends of basic TV subscriptions and broadband service penetration. Sustained demand for faster home broadband led to sequential increases in broadband subs and ARPU throughout the year.
This resulted in a 13% Y-o-Y increase in broadband revenue in 2021, where Double Play was a significant contributor to growth. Broadband strength also helped CATV revenue and EBITDA both turned to Y-o-Y growth for the full year, the first time since 2015.
Now let me turn the presentation over to Rosie for financial overview.
Hi. Good afternoon. Let's start with performance by business. In the fourth quarter of 2021, consolidated revenue grew by 17% on a year-on-year basis, supported by a robust E-commerce business and improving Telecom business.
Mobile Service revenue grew year-on-year with steady ARPU improvement, resulting in a 2% Telecom revenue growth in the quarter. Thanks to increasing revenues, well-managed marketing costs and the government subsidies for 5G network construction, Telecom EBITDA rose year-on-year, marking the third consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth.
Momo continued on its growth, bolstered by e-commerce, where its revenue grew by 33% year-on-year in the quarter. Despite higher marketing expenses associated with the Double 11 shopping festival, EBITDA surged by 44% year-on-year, thanks to economies of scale and operating leverage.
Cable TV EBITDA increased by 3% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, underpinned by solid broadband revenue momentum.
So now let's go to results summary. In the fourth quarter, besides solid top line growth, Telecom and Cable TV EBITDA continued to see year-on-year hikes, while momo remained a key contributor to the year-on-year rise in consolidated EBITDA.
As 5G D&A's impact on telecom profitability started subsiding, 5G upselling and momo's upbeat performance helped consolidated operating income grow 9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
The year-on-year jump in net income was mainly due to a high base from equipment write-off. Excluding the write-off, net income still increased year-on-year for this quarter. For the full year, thanks to Mobile Service revenue growth year-on-year, sustained e-commerce momentum and rising broadband demand, consolidated revenue grew 17% and consolidated EBITDA turned to 6% growth in 2021, both exceeded our full year guidance released in the beginning of the year.
Now let's move to balance sheet analysis. On the asset side, cash increased quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year due to higher free cash flow inclusive of subsidies from the government. Receivables climbed year-on-year due to momo's revenue increase in Taiwan Mobile's direct carrier billing services.
PB&E remained stable as 5G CapEx cycle has already peaked. While noncurrent contract assets increased year-on-year, we feature a 48-month premium handset bundle contracts. As for liability, the year-on-year climb in payables was driven mainly by momo's e-commerce growth.
Stronger free cash flow and conversions of our convertible bonds, which matured in November last year, helped improve both current ratio and gearing in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Lastly, let's look at cash flow analysis on the next slide. In the fourth quarter, despite the year-on-year increase in EBITDA, higher iPhone payables a year ago resulted in a year-on-year decrease in operating cash inflows. For the full year, the 5% year-on-year drop in operating cash inflow was driven by the rise in contract assets brought about by our longer contract [ period ] handset bundles.
In 2021, the year-on-year changes in investing and financing cash flows mainly reflected lower cash CapEx, which is net of government subsidies in 2021 and 5G license payments in 2020, respectively.
On the free cash flow front, pre-IFRS 16 operating cash flow reached TWD 17.08 billion in 2021, translating into a free cash flow yield of 6.1%.
Let me turn the presentation back to Jamie for event updates and key message.
Thank you, Rosie. Let's go to Page 14 for awards and recognitions. This page summarizes the awards and recognitions that we received during the quarter for your reference.
Next, let me walk you through our guidance for 2022. In 2022, we expect consolidated revenue to grow by 15% to 17% Y-o-Y, underpinned by our 3 growth engines. Please note that this guidance does not take into account our pending merger with Taiwan Star, as the deal still requires regulatory approvals.
To ensure growth, we will prudently invest in mobile subscriber acquisition and retention, focusing on upselling via our growing unique bundle option and increase our premium broadband -- premium cable broadband subscribers. As a result of these efforts, we expect consolidated EBITDA to grow by 1% to 3% in 2022.
For 2022 CapEx, a total of TWD 11.2 billion was approved by the Board, where 5G CapEx will decline Y-o-Y. Momo's CapEx will rise for e-commerce logistics standard expansion, while Cable TV investment for broadband growth will continue.
Finally, let's turn to Page 16 to wrap up our presentation. Here is the key message we would like for you to take away with. In 2021, Taiwan Mobile delivered better-than-expected results and demonstrated our special ability to go to the market with unique offerings that cater to the needs of our customers.
Going forward, we expect to continue to allocate capital to growth areas, including the acquisition of Taiwan Mobile -- I'm sorry, Taiwan Star and synergy creation post-merger as well as emerging opportunities in smart logistics, web3, metaverse and Southeast Asia in order to grow our customer base meet their growing digital demand and gain a greater share of their overall spending.
With that, I would like -- I would now open the floor up for Q&A session. Thank you.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Neale Anderson with HSBC Hong Kong.
I have 2 questions, please. The first 1 relates to the final slide and the emerging opportunities in smart logistics: web3, metaverse and Southeast Asia. Could you give us a little bit more detail on what your priorities are there and where you believe that Taiwan Mobile has an edge in those areas?
And the second question relates to the EBITDA guidance. So I understand you're probably being conservative, but it does look low relative to the performance you achieved in 2021. So would it be possible to get a bit more color on where you think things might slow down relative to the performance in 2021, that would be great?
Thank you, Neale. So in terms of emerging opportunities for the year 2022, those are the 4 key areas we will focus on. In terms of smart logistics, it's mainly to further support momo's growth. In terms of web3, we're looking into possibilities to work with [ airport ] start-ups to capture this opportunity.
In terms of metaverse, we're also developing some services that we can go to the market with. In terms of Southeast Asia, we have already made investments in startups, and we're looking start-ups like Tiki, and we're looking to increase our synergy with them.
In terms of EBITDA guidance...
On the EBITDA guidance, it's Page -- it's 6%. For 2021, we grew our EBITDA by 6%. And for this year, as you can see from the slide that will be the guidance that we are providing. So why -- you think why this is conservative compared to the 6% growth that you saw? I think in 2020, we had a relatively low base.
So 2021, I think both momo's EBITDA and some of our businesses EBITDA, including Broadband, saw some sort of demand surge due to COVID. And it resulted in a higher base for 2021, and we're sort of taking that factor away from our guidance. So yes, we're -- sort of our EBITDA guidance is our -- the management's best projection on what we can achieve for the year.
Got it. Can I just follow up on the investment side? Do you have any parameters in terms of thinking about the amount or the size of the investments you might make in any of those areas or in total?
I think in terms of investments, we -- the Board has set sort of a framework which is probably above my paygrade to discuss. But we -- as you probably know, good opportunities are hard to come by. So it's more important that we focus on finding these opportunities instead of thinking of investment as some sort of operation we can predict.
Our next question comes from Sara Wang with UBS Hong Kong.
Two questions from me. So first question is that given 5G capacity is already peaked, shall we expect the decline in the total CapEx next year?
And then the second question maybe it's related to the first question. So given we have already observed a continuous improvement in our free cash flow as well as earnings, do we have any plan to increase dividend?
I don't think we can comment on CapEx for the next year. There's a few sort of factors in play here. One of them is, we need to continue to invest in logistics to support momo's growth. So it's hard to predict the CapEx needs for 2023 in order to help momo maintain its leadership.
In terms of our dividend policy, we -- it's also above our paygrade.
But having said that, I think we are always very committed to a stable dividend policy, and it's being factored in, in all our plans throughout the company to make it stable, as always.
Our next question comes from Peter Milliken with Deutsche Bank Hong Kong.
Look, my question is -- well, actually a statement first. I'm looking forward to the day when I [ have a phone ] in the last 4 years, that will be a first. So I'm bit curious as to what [indiscernible] users when they break their phone or something happens to it? What are the terms? And how do you avoid sort of that issue and any customer problems that may come out of that?
So Peter, are you referring to customers that have signed a longer period contract when they...
Yes. I am.
Got it. So there are a few things, right? So number one, they can purchase an insurance with the phone they acquired from us. Usually, the -- a significant percentage of the customers would do that. So whenever their phone -- something happens to their phone, the insurance will cover for it.
On top of that, there's also a significant percentage of our users who prefer to bring their own device. So throughout the 48-month contract, some of them might in the middle switch to a new phone that they buy from, hopefully, momo. So those are the sort of activities at play in the market right now.
[Operator Instructions]
If there's no further questions, I guess we should call it a day?
Mr. Lin, there are no further question at this point in time. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, everyone, for joining this installment of our conference call, and we look forward to having you next time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for participation. This concludes the conference. Goodbye.