Telus posts $660M Q3 loss on $800M Telus Health writedown

Telus Corp. reported a net loss of $660 million for the third quarter on Friday, driven by an $800-million non-cash writedown on its Telus Health business, and said it is launching an efficiency program aimed at about $900 million in annualized cash savings by the end of 2028.

The Vancouver-based telecommunications company said the loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compares with profit a year earlier. Basic earnings per share were a loss of 42 cents, compared with earnings of 32 cents in the same period last year. Adjusted basic earnings per share were 16 cents, down 33 per cent.

Telus said the pre-tax goodwill impairment of $800 million reflects a reduction in the recoverable amount of the Telus Health unit because of updated growth expectations, broader market conditions and a valuation update within the health portfolio as a result of the company’s active divestiture process.

Operating revenues from contracts with customers were $5.02 billion, down one per cent from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.76 billion, down five per cent from $1.86 billion, though Telus said that when one-time items are excluded the decline was two per cent. Free cash flow was $396 million, down 35 per cent.

Telus said its core wireless business showed signs of improvement. The company added 84,000 mobile phone customers in the quarter, up 2,000 from a year earlier, and said blended mobile phone churn of 1.01 per cent was a three-year low. Average revenue per user was flat at $57.22. Internet net additions were 10,000, down 30,000 from the same period last year, while connected device additions were 289,000, up 120,000.

“Since our second quarter earnings call, our core telecom business has shown clear signs of stabilization and we have made important progress on the execution of our Transformation Strategy,” Telus president and CEO Victor Dodig said in the release.

Dodig said the strategy’s goal is returning Telus to a leading communications and AI infrastructure player in Canada.

The company said about 80 per cent of the planned savings are expected to come from its core telecom operations, with the balance from its global platform businesses. Telus listed customer care, customer growth, procurement, and network and field force efficiency among the areas it will target.

Chief financial officer Gopi Chande said the third-quarter results were in line with expectations set in July and that the company is reaffirming its full-year 2026 targets. Those include flat to a two-per-cent decline in consolidated service revenue, a two- to four-per-cent decline in adjusted EBITDA, capital expenditures of about $2.6 billion and free cash flow of about $1.8 billion.

Chande said the dividend reset and removal of the dividend reinvestment plan discount announced in July, along with an asset monetization program, give Telus a path to reducing its net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to 3.0 times or lower by the end of 2028. The ratio stood at 3.6 times at the end of the quarter. Telus said its monetization priorities are Telus Health and Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods, with proceeds going toward debt reduction.

The board declared a quarterly dividend of 18.75 cents per share, payable Jan. 4, 2027, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 11. Telus also said Marc Allera and Bill Thomas will join its board of directors effective Jan. 1, 2027.

The results come after a difficult stretch for Canada’s telecom sector. Telus restored service on Nov. 5 after outages hit several provinces, and Ottawa recently unveiled an 18-point telecom competition roadmap. Rival Rogers was fined $15 million last month over advertising for its unlimited plans.

Source: Telus Corp. third-quarter 2026 results release, issued Nov. 6, 2026. Figures are in Canadian dollars. File photo: Telus Garden in Vancouver.

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