Cogeco’s revenue, profits decline but company expecting better days as MVNO grows

Revenues and profits fell at Cogeco Inc. during its fourth quarter this year, but the company is hopeful that its recently announced telecom expansion will help numbers for the coming fiscal year. The Montreal-based company released its fiscal numbers for 2025 on Wednesday, Oct. 29. For the fourth quarter ending Aug. 31, revenues were $731 million, down 4.9 per cent from $768 million a year earlier. Profit for the quarter fell 6.4 per cent from $81.4 million in FY 2024 to $76.1 million this year. For the year as a whole, revenues were $3 billion in 2025, a fall of 2.1 per cent from the $3.07 billion posted in 2024. Profits were $335 million this year, from $349 million the previous year, a decrease of 4.1 per cent. Cogeco recently launched its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in Ontario and Quebec. Company CEO Frédéric Perron is optimistic that the new wireless service will bring in additional customers. “It’s fair to say that on balance our Canadian competitive environment is evolving in a constructive manner at the present time,” he told an analysts’ call Thursday morning. He added that the firm is at the end of the first year of a three-year transformation effort concentrating on synergy, digital, analytics, network extension and wireless. The new wireless service has proven so popular Cogeco has already started pulling back on introductory offers, he noted. The company did not report its subscriber numbers because the service is so new. Free cash flow (FCF) for the quarter was $101 million, down from $143 million for Q4 2024, a fall of 29.1 per cent. For the year, it stood at $514 million, an increase of 8.1 per cent over the previous year’s $475 million. Net capital expenditures (capex) inched up 0.8 per cent, landing at $155 million for the quarter versus $154 million in 2024. Capex for the year was $591 million, against the $642 million in FY 2024, a decrease of eight per cent. For Q4 2025, Canadian telecom revenue was $372 million in Q4, a decline of 1.5 per cent that the company blames on shrinking video and wireline phone subscriber numbers. For the year, Canadian telecom revenue was $1.49 billion, down one per cent from 2024’s $1.51 billion. South of the border, telecom revenues were C$335 million in the fourth quarter, down nine per cent from C$369 million the year prior. The company also attributed this decline to a fall in the subscriber base. Revenues for the year were C$1.41 billion, down 3.5 per cent from the previous year’s C$1.46 billion. Cogeco’s Canadian telecom arm reported 1.87 million subscribers as of Aug. 31. There were 938,166 internet customers, 578,761 video clients and 357,144 wireline users. The internet segment was the only one that saw a net increase in subscribers this quarter. American totals were 962,183 subscribers. Internet users were 616,070, video clients were 234,167 and 111,946 were wireline customers. All segments for the company’s U.S. operations saw a net loss in subscribers. Perron also released the company’s financial guidelines for the next fiscal year. Revenues are projected to fall one to three per cent with net capex expected to be between $565 million and $605 million. FCF is likely to increase anywhere from zero to 10 per cent. ppark@thewirereport.ca

Cogeco’s revenue, profits decline but company expecting better days as MVNO grows

Telecom |
By Paul Park
|October 30, 2025

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Cogeco’s revenue, profits decline but company expecting better days as MVNO grows

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