Shaw Q1 2018 Results

[pjw918]

Shaw's Q1 2018 (ending Nov 30)
Thursday January 11
6:30am MT 8:30am ET

Shaw Newsroom

Shaw Communications Inc. will be releasing its consolidated results for the First Quarter (ending November 30, 2017) the morning of Thursday, January 11, 2018.

Conference Call Details:
Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 6:30 am Mountain Time; 8:30 am Eastern Time
Canada & USA Toll Free: 1-800-319-4610
Calgary Toll: 1-403-351-0324
Montreal Toll: 1-514-375-0364
Toronto Toll: 1-416-915-3239
International Toll: 1-604-638-5340

Please call 5 to 10 minutes before the start of the conference call.

Replay Dial In: (available until midnight Eastern Time, Thursday, February 22, 2018)
Canada & USA Toll Free: 1-855-669-9658
Code: 1927 followed by the # sign

Webcast:
You can listen to the live or recorded broadcast at:
http://services.choruscall.ca/links/shaw20180111.html

The webcast is available until midnight Eastern Time, Sunday, February 11, 2018

[pjw918]

Last week Jim Shaw, former CEO & brother of current CEO Brad Shaw, passed away.

Shaw Communications announces the death of Jim Shaw

CALGARY, January 3, 2018 – Shaw Communications Inc. announced that, following a brief illness, Jim Shaw, Vice-Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer, passed away peacefully earlier today at the age of 60.

"As a family, our hearts are heavy with sadness,” said Brad Shaw, Chief Executive Officer, Shaw Communications. “I have not only lost a brother, but a great friend and mentor. Our lives will not be as complete without hearing Jim’s laughter or getting the benefit of his counsel or his insight.”

Jim Shaw served as the second CEO of Shaw Communications from 1998 to 2010 and led a senior management team known for its longevity, discipline, stability and cohesiveness; a tribute to his consultative style, trust, leadership skills and his willingness to delegate responsibility and reward success.

During Jim’s tenure as CEO, he established himself as a master company builder, leading strategic acquisitions that would fuel the company’s growth for the future. Incredibly, during the 12 years of Jim’s leadership, the company’s revenue grew from $646 million in 1998 to $3.7 billion in 2010.
...


'Master company builder’ Jim Shaw
Financial Post, Jan 4 2018

Late cable family scion Jim Shaw built a media empire
Globe and Mail, Jan 5 2018

[sirtate]

http://business.financialpost.com/te...ffer-some-clue

The warm-up continues.

As Shaw Communications Inc. prepares to report quarterly earnings this week, much of the buzz has been about how the telecom giant’s wireless play, Freedom Mobile, sparked a price war with the Big Three incumbents just before the holiday season.

Analysts expect Freedom to gain momentum in the New Year after its “Big Gig” plans with 10 gigabytes of data for only $50 triggered retaliation from its larger competitors, which responded in December with limited time offers of 10 GB for $60 on their higher quality networks. Consumers rushed to get the unprecedented deals from Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.

“We believe Freedom’s momentum is set to accelerate,” Barclays analyst Phillip Huang wrote Monday.

Huang expects Shaw’s progress will be driven by its larger, cheaper data plans and its launch of the new iPhone X at $0 down – a departure from standard industry practice – and its network enhancements that allow it to sell iPhones in the first place.

These actions, however, are expected to put pressure on margins as Shaw spends more to deliver growth, especially if Shaw faces retaliation from the Big Three, Huang noted.

While some investors may support the aggressive strategy, others may be concerned about sacrifices to Shaw’s cash position, he added.**

Shaw’s Freedom remained a small player at the end of 2017, capturing less than 4 per cent of the country’s wireless market share with about 1.1 million subscriptions out of 30.7 million nationwide. Still, it injected competition into B.C., Alberta and Ontario where it sparked year-end promotions.

Freedom is expected to add 150,000 to 155,000 wireless customers in 2018, according to analysts’ consensus estimates, a small wedge in a market expected to add 1 million customers overall, Canaccord Genuity analyst Aravinda Galappatthige wrote in an industry update Monday.

Canaccord sees Telus as the top pick for 2018 given its strength in wireless and likely gains as Shaw shifts its focus to profitability. It expects a “close call” between Rogers and Bell, with Rogers having a slight advantage given its recent dominant wireless performance even though it lost a federal government contract to Bell.

There’s still a strong case for a pro-wireless stance since the big three carriers’ subscriber growth, customer churn rates and earnings growth remain “outstanding,” Galappatthige wrote. Plus, indications are there will be a “sizable” beat for subscriber additions for the fourth quarter of 2017.

“Having said that, we would slightly colour our position on wireless with the cautionary note that in light of the more aggressive offerings from Freedom Mobile,” he wrote.

“While our view is that Freedom is currently not in a position to compromise the healthy fundamentals being enjoyed by the incumbents, some watchfulness is required.”

There could be negative implications for the incumbents if they continue to match Freedom’s lower pricing for longer periods, especially when it comes to average revenue per user, he wrote.

TD Securities analyst Vince Valentini named increasing disruption from Freedom as one of the top telecom trends to watch in 2018, given its improved network and ability to sell iPhones. Other themes included the battle between cable companies and telcos for television subscribers and Rogers’ wireless growth.

Indeed, Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi upgraded Rogers to buy in a research note on Monday. It added the most wireless subscribers in the first nine months of 2017 (282,000 additions compared to 258,000 for Telus, 242,000 for Bell and 103,000 for Freedom), he noted, while maintaining strong margins.

Rogers stock has dropped about 10 per cent since its peak in November, which Yaghi believes is a reaction to Freedom.

“Freedom’s potentially negative impact on the Canadian wireless industry is undeniable, but we believe the timing of this impact could be later than the market currently expects,” Yaghi wrote.

He doesn’t expect Freedom to make a dent until 2019 or late 2018, given Shaw’s network is still at a disadvantage.

Shaw reports its quarterly results for the period ending Nov. 30 on Thursday. It didn’t start selling iPhones until Nov. 24 and only launched its “Big Gig” plans on Nov. 22, so analysts don’t expect to see a large impact from its competitive plays until its next round of results.



Sent from my LG-H933 using HoFo mobile app

[pjw918]

Especially the last paragraph, to moderate expectations.

Shaw reports its quarterly results for the period ending Nov. 30 on Thursday. It didn’t start selling iPhones until Nov. 24 and only launched its “Big Gig” plans on Nov. 22, so analysts don’t expect to see a large impact from its competitive plays until its next round of results.

And until the mid-November correction, the initial Big Gig roster was unappealing.
Disappearing data, pricey tab discounts, and PPU voice on the marquee plan.

The Q2 results will be more indicative of Freedom's momentum.

[Mann Incognito]

In short:

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/01/11/s...scal-earnings/

[sirtate]

In short:

https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/01/11/s...scal-earnings/

Interesting to note that they saw "record disconnects" during the Big3 10gig promo days.

This tells me that price is still the driving factor for Shaw subscribers. (Not news, really)

But if the network experience improves, we will see proper competition.

Sent from my LG-H933 using HoFo mobile app

[seekr]

Interesting to note that they saw "record disconnects" during the Big3 10gig promo days.

This tells me that price is still the driving factor for Shaw subscribers. (Not news, really)

But if the network experience improves, we will see proper competition.

Sent from my LG-H933 using HoFo mobile app

in 4-5 days of a promo from the rest of the industry, Freedom saw "record disconnects".... if anyone here likes Freedom, they should be worried about "competition" actually competing.. Imagine if the incumbents kept the rate plan on-going for 2 weeks? Would that have been catastrophic to Freedom?

Seems like the ecosystem thrives with both price-gouging collusive behaviours, and a pretend-market-disruptor pushing for the "competition". If shaw ever got the incumbents to swing low, it's obviously painful for Shaw/Freedom only.

In other news, at least they had a better YoY in adding people on to the network, although the entire 2017 still seems rather low as a whole. The momentum needs a serious "year one" ignition again. I do not envy the position Shaw finds it self in. Part of me thinks a further reduction of $10 to $20 off each rate plan and stronger marketing pushes is needed, but not if it frustrates the company to sell it off if it's not turning a profit fast enough either...

[markf_2]

We will find out what record disconnects means, as will the competition.

The question now becomes do the big 3 take Freedom out at the knees now or once they become more of a threat, or does Shaw make a 'gentleman's agreement' to go easy on the promos and slowly collect subs rather than trying to steal them away?

The Big 3 promos seem to be about putting Freedom in its place.

Sent from my Passport using HoFo mobile app

[pjw918]

Shaw Q1 2018
Sep 1 - Nov 30

Press Release
MD&A
Earnings Call

Wireless 1Q18
Revenue $175M (+26.8% YOY)
ARPU 37.52 (4Q17 37.66, 1Q17 36.79)
RGU (subs) 1,181,483 (+34,310)
Postpaid 797,141 (+33,050)
Prepaid 384,342 (+1,260)

Q4 2017

[skifan]

It would be very interesting to see what the 'record disconnects', RGU and ARPU would have come in at if they had not been forced to offer all of those promo 'friends and family discounts'. You know the ones, where the Fan Boys were begging (or even offering to pay) for a code here on Hofo.

Like has been said above, if the Big boys get cranky and really start to compete, those performance measures next quarter will look a lot different. Time will tell.

[Mann Incognito]

Interesting to note that they saw "record disconnects" during the Big3 10gig promo days.

This tells me that price is still the driving factor for Shaw subscribers. (Not news, really)

But if the network experience improves, we will see proper competition.

Sent from my LG-H933 using HoFo mobile app

I would have 'disconnected' myself had it not been for the fact I still have grandfathered full speed US roaming @ 10GB.

[sirtate]

http://business.financialpost.com/te...t-major-growth

Sent from my LG-H933 using HoFo mobile app

[Ipberg]

34,000 subscriber growth for 2018 Q1 didn't seem all that impressive to me. I'm interested to see if the iPhone 8/8 Plus/X rollout in December and return of the data discount plans in January will usher in double that many new subscribers (68,000) for Q2.

[Mr.Peppermint]

Yeah a net add of 34,000 is way less than I had expected as well

I suspect they added alot of subs, but the "record disconnects" killed them

[xtachx]

Yeah a net add of 34,000 is way less than I had expected as well

I suspect they added alot of subs, but the "record disconnects" killed them

That's before the iPhone launch so people were probably holding on for the iPhone.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using HoFo mobile app