By Adriano Marchese
BCE's third-quarter profit rose due to the proceeds of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment divestiture while its mobile subscriber growth fell in the quarter.
The Canadian telecom major posted on Thursday a net income of 4.56 billion Canadian dollars ($3.23 billion), or C$4.84 a share, compared with a loss of C$1.19 billion, or C$1.36 a share, in the comparable quarter a year ago.
The rise in the quarter was mainly due to the sale of its stake in Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment.
On an adjusted basis, which strips out exceptional costs and one-off items such as the MLSE divestment, earnings came to C$0.79 a share. According to FactSet, analysts were expecting C$0.72 a share.
Revenue rose 1.3% to C$6.05 billion, but shy of forecasts for the quarter, which anticipated a greater rise to C$6.08 billion.
The company said the rise was driven by an 0.8% higher service revenue of C$5.32 billion and a 5.1% increase in product revenue to C$720 million.
BCE's mobile division saw slower growth in new customers during the third quarter. The number of new monthly contract subscribers, or post-paid, fell sharply by 65% to 11,511. This was driven by fewer overall sign-ups, which the company attributes to a less active market, slowing population growth, and a deliberate focus on attracting customers on more profitable plans.
Similarly, new pay-as-you-go customer additions, known as pre-paid, declined to 56,507, down from 69,085 in the same period last year. Here too the company cited slowing population growth, as well as a higher rate of existing prepaid customers leaving the service.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 06, 2025 07:28 ET (12:28 GMT)
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