Quebecor Media Inc. is developing a business plan to possibly enter the national wireless telephone market as it looks to take advantage of a new opportunity to grow its expanding Internet, cable and newspaper business.
“We are working diligently to position the company on another growth segment for the future and our capability to sustain great returns to our shareholders,” said Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau during a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter and year-end results.
Peladeau said the company is excited about favourable rules for new entrants to the wireless business and plans to participate in the upcoming auction.
While he declined to provide details of its bidding strategy, he hinted that it may take advantage of the “formidable investment opportunities outside Quebec.”
The media conglomerate has swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $112.4 million from a year-earlier loss of $97.1 million, when there was a big writedown of broadcasting assets.
A $48.9-million rise in quarterly operating income and a $22.2-million decrease in federal tax rates also contributed to the improvement.
Quebecor Inc. holds a 54.7% interest in Quebecor Media, which owns operating companies in numerous media-related businesses. For the full year, Quebecor Media’s net income totalled a record $327.1 million, contrasting with a loss of $169.7 million in 2006.
Annual revenue jumped 12.2% to $3.37 billion and operating income jumped 20.5% to a record $963.9 million.
The financial results were fuelled by the strongest performance of Groupe Videotron as it added customers, especially in cable telephony, he added.
He said the newspapers segment was boosted by the favourable impact of the acquisition of Osprey Media, which closed in August 2007, as well as increased operating income from its regular operations, on a comparable basis.
“We’ve been able to harvest the strong efforts made throughout the last five to six years delivering on our convergence and bundle models.”
Although Quebecor has no plans to eliminate its holding structure, it began to exclude troubled printer Quebecor World from its consolidated results as of Jan. 21.
Quebecor’s operating companies include:
- Videotron Ltd., the largest cable operator in Quebec and a major Internet service provider and supplier of telephone and business telecommunications services;
- A newspapers segment that is the largest publisher of newspapers in Canada;
- TVA Group Inc., operator of the largest French-language over-the-air television network in Quebec, a number of specialty channels, and the English-language over-the-air station SUN TV;
- Canoe Inc., operator of a network of English- and French-language Internet properties in Canada; and
- Nurun Inc., a major interactive technologies and communications agency with offices in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
