TELUS Corporation yesterday released its unaudited results for the first quarter of 2023. Consolidated operating revenues and other income increased by 16 per cent over the same period a year ago to $5.0 billion. This growth was driven by higher service revenues in their two reportable segments: TELUS technology solutions (TTech) and Digitally-led customer experiences – TELUS International (DLCX).
TTech service revenue increased due to: (i) growth in health services revenues mainly driven by TELUS' acquisition of LifeWorks on September 1, 2022; (ii) higher mobile network revenues attributable to roaming revenue improvements and subscriber growth; and (iii) an increase in fixed data service revenues, resulting from subscriber growth, business acquisitions and higher revenue per internet customer. These factors were partly offset by lower TV and fixed legacy voice services revenues, primarily due to technological substitution. Growth in DLCX operating revenues resulted from expanded services for existing clients and growth from new clients, including new clients from TELUS' acquisition of WillowTree on January 3, 2023, and favourable foreign exchange impacts. See First Quarter 2023 Operating Highlights within this news release for a discussion on TTech and DLCX results.
Other highlights of the report include:
- Total Mobile and Fixed customer growth of 163,000, up 15,000 over last year, and TELUS' strongest first quarter on record, driven by strong demand for TELUS' leading portfolio across Mobility and Fixed services
- Strong Mobile Phone net additions of 47,000, TELUS' best first quarter since 2010, and robust Connected Device net additions of 58,000; industry-leading postpaid churn of 0.70 per cent and Mobile Phone ARPU growth of 3.8 per cent
- Record first quarter Fixed customer net additions of 58,000, including 35,000 internet customer additions, powered by industry-leading customer loyalty, with blended PureFibre churn below 1 per cent, in combination with TELUS’ PureFibre network; achieved one million security customer milestone
- Adjusted EBITDA growth of 11 per cent and double digit Free Cash Flow growth of 29 per cent; Net Income lower by 45 per cent on higher interest, depreciation and amortization, and restructuring and other costs
- Quarterly dividend raised to $0.3636, an increase of 7.4 per cent over the same period last year and TELUS' twenty-fourth increase since May 2011, representing a yield of approximately 5 per cent, supported by leading Adjusted EBITDA growth and strong cash flow expansion
- Reiterating TELUS' 2023 Consolidated Financial Targets including Operating Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth of 11 to 14 per cent and 9.5 to 11 per cent, respectively, Capital Expenditures of approximately $2.6 billion and Free Cash Flow of approximately $2.0 billion
Darren Entwistle, President and CEO
In the first quarter, our TELUS team once again demonstrated our hallmark execution excellence, characterized by the potent combination of leading customer growth and strong financial results. Our robust performance is underpinned by our globally leading broadband networks and customer-centric culture, which enabled our strongest first quarter on record, with total customer net additions of 163,000, up 10 per cent, year-over-year. This included strong mobile phone net additions of 47,000, our best first quarter result since 2010; healthy connected device net additions of 58,000; and record first quarter total fixed net additions of 58,000, inclusive of reaching our one millionth security subscriber. Our leading customer growth is reflective of our consistent, industry-best client loyalty across our mobile and fixed product lines. In this regard, our team’s passion for delivering customer experience excellence contributed to strong client loyalty across our key product lines, once again this quarter, including blended mobile phone, PureFibre internet, Optik TV, security and voice churn at or below one per cent. Moreover, our industry-leading postpaid mobile phone churn of 0.70 per cent represents the ninth quarter out of the last 13 below 0.80 per cent.
Our results are backed by our highly differentiated and powerful asset mix geared towards high-growth, technology-oriented verticals... Despite a challenging global macroeconomic environment, earlier today TELUS International (TI) once again announced strong double-digit revenue growth and solid profitability for the first quarter. TI’s resilient results and outlook reflect the important relationship with TELUS as an anchor customer, enabling TELUS’ customer service excellence and powering our digitization strategy – a unique relationship that significantly benefits both organizations. TI’s continued focus on profitable growth, powered by attractive end-to-end digital capabilities, position it as a trusted advisor for premier digital customer experiences and IT services for its over 650 global clients.
