Telefónica, S.A. (NYSE:TEF) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

We expect margins to stand in the mid-high 30s for the Spanish operation. You saw the margin in the fourth quarter, very strong. And then for CapEx, we expect it to be in line in terms of CapEx intensity as in 2022. You were also asking about downtrading. We’re not seeing that be the case. And the proof point is the ARPU performance. We have seen convergent ARPU in the fourth quarter at €90.3, showing year-on-year, very good progress. And this is the result of several moving parts. We had some more for more in February. We have, as I was saying, in at the beginning, almost none promotions in the fourth quarter. So the dilutive promotions effect has been helping. The SME portfolio has been also supporting this. And the stickiness that we are seeing in the price increases that were already put in place by mid-January gives us a good expectation for the ARPU going forward into 2023.

Jose María Alvarez-Pallete: Taking your question on regulation globally or more broadly. Well, the starting point, I mean the European sector, as a telecom sector, has a very low growth return on capital employed — barely has a return on capital employed, barely beating cost of capital. And that’s because of the sector is too fragmented. The average European mobile operator covers 5 million people, where the average U.S. operator — mobile operator covers 107 million people. I think the situation is unsustainable and data volumes are growing 30% year-on-year. So the networks need to be there. And the overall problem is that the current framework for the regulation was designed at the time of copper incumbent monopolies. And now we are fiber companies, and there is a huge fragmentation in number of competitors.

It was thought at the time of voice and is now the time of data. As a result, the overall competitive — competition policy and the rules have become obsolete. And I think they are going to evolve. I think that the move is for an evolution because in other regions of the world, they have evolved. We think that Europe is starting to evolve in that regard, and we see the commission more open to this kind of debate. More specifically, keep in mind that 56% — roughly 60% of data volumes today in Europe, in all networks, are being generated by six players, which are not contributing to the huge investment need for deploying that amount of capacity. European companies, we invest in the neighborhood of €30 billion to €35 billion adjusting capacity of the network, and we need to take — we are taking the hit on that.

So there is a debate ongoing that I think is going to be heated in the next few days around the need for a fair share compensation of that effort among the different parties. And I think that the debate is fair. The debate is needed, and the debate is very dynamic, I would say. So I think that — and in terms of consolidation for the avoidance of doubt, in the case of Spain, we are in favor of the Orange Masmovil transaction, and we think it should be approved without remedies because I think it proves the situation of our sectors. So we are not — we are stating the same thing when we are not part of the consolidation process and in fact, it’s going to be affecting us here in our home market, but time has come for a more rational approach.

Adrián Zunzunegui: We have time for one last question, please.

Operator: We will now take the last question. It comes from the line of Fernando Barreira from Grupo Santander.