BCE Inc. is in the midst of a multi-billion-dollar capital spending program, but that didn’t get in the way of dividend growth that its chief executive officer knows his company’s investors crave.

“We know what we are and we are a dividend growth company,” said BCE President and CEO Mirko Bibic in an interview Thursday. “We know what investors expect of us and so that’s what we’re trying to deliver each and every year.”

The telecommunications company said in a release Thursday that its board approved a 5.1 per cent increase for the annual dividend, which will rise to $3.68 per share. As a result, the quarterly payment will rise to 92 cents per share as of April 15. That came alongside quarterly results that were broadly in line with expectations and that helped send the company’s share price to an all-time high.

In the fourth quarter, BCE’s net profit fell 29 per cent to $658 million from $932 million a year earlier. The company cited the sale of data centres to Equinix last year as contributing to the drop in profit. On an adjusted basis, BCE earned 76 cents per share. Analysts, on average, were expecting 73 cents in per-share profit.

The company’s revenue rose almost two per cent in the fourth quarter to $6.2 billion. The primary growth driver was its wireless division, where it benefitted from the addition of almost 110,000 net new postpaid subscribers and an uptick in roaming activity. BCE noted in a release, however, that revenue from roaming was still “well below seasonal pre-pandemic levels.”

Revenue in BCE’s media division (which owns BNN Bloomberg) climbed seven per cent to $849 million thanks to higher ad spending and subscriber revenue. However, the division was a drag on overall profitability. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization sank 19 per cent to $153 million due to higher costs.

Looking ahead, BCE forecast revenue growth at one per cent to five per cent this year and adjusted earnings per share that could rise between two and seven per cent. Capital expenditures are seen at approximately $5 billion, compared to the $4.8 billion that was invested in 2021.

Bibic said in the interview that the federal government’s capital depreciation programs and the sale of data centres are helping to fund the spending program; so that leaves room for BCE’s day-to-day operations to bankroll the payments to shareholders.

“We’re able to fund the dividend growth from organic operations, so that’s the good news actually for shareholders,” he said.