Yahoo Finance Liberty Global (LBTYA) Q1 Earnings and Revenues Rise Y/Y
Liberty Global's LBTYA profit from continuing operations in first-quarter 2024 amounted to $527 million, up 173.9% year over year.
Revenues increased 4.1% year over year to $1.945 billion. On a rebased basis, revenues rose 1.9% year over year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the top line was pegged at $1.87 billion.
Liberty Global Ltd Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Liberty Global Ltd price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Liberty Global Ltd Quote
Top-Line Details
Total average revenue per unit (ARPU) per fixed customer relationship increased 4.5% year over year to $66.69. On a rebased basis, the figure rose 1.8%.
Mobile ARPU (including interconnect revenues), on a reported basis, rose 4.4% to $27.04. On a rebased basis, the figure dropped 0.3%. Mobile ARPU (excluding interconnect revenues), on a reported basis, increased 5.7% to $25.02.
As of Mar 31, 2024, the total mobile subscriber count included approximately 2.8 million subscribers in Switzerland, 2.9 million in Belgium, 35 million from the VMO2 Joint Venture (JV) and 5.6 million from the VodafoneZiggo JV.
In total, Liberty Global lost 18,800 customer relationships in the first quarter compared with a loss of 16,500 in the year-ago quarter.
Belgium’s revenues, on a reported basis, increased 1.1% year over year to $762.6 million.
In Belgium, Liberty Global lost 14,900 customer relationships compared with a loss of 13,300 in the year-ago quarter.
Switzerland’s revenues, on a reported basis, improved 5.8% year over year to $854 million.
In Switzerland, LBTYA lost 800 customer relationships against a gain of 2,300 in the year-ago quarter.
Ireland’s revenues, on a reported basis, remained unchanged at $123 million.
The company lost 1,300 customer relationships in Ireland compared with a loss of 2,500 in the year-ago quarter.
Central and other revenues, on a reported basis, climbed 10.3% to $269.6 million.
In Slovakia, Liberty Global lost 1,800 customer relationships compared with a loss of 1,200 in the year-ago quarter.
Joint Venture Details
Sunrise revenues of $854 million in the first quarter of 2024 increased 5.8% year over year on a reported basis and were flat on a rebased basis. The results benefited from the positive impact of last year's July price rise and continued momentum in mobile subscription and business-to-business (B2B), offset by lower handset revenues.
Telenet revenues of $792.6 million rose 1.1% year over year on a reported basis and decreased 0.5% on a rebased basis. The rebased decrease was primarily due to a fall in B2B wholesale revenues following the expected loss of the VOO MVNO contract, a decline in the fixed customer base and lower interconnect revenues, partially offset by the benefit of the price increase in June.
Liberty Global’s non-consolidated joint venture, Virgin Media O2, reported revenues of $3.282 billion, which grew 3.8% year over year on a reported basis and dipped 0.5% on a rebased basis. The rebased decrease was primarily due to a fall in mobile revenues because of lower handset sales and a decline in B2B fixed revenues.
The fixed customer base declined 2,000 in the reported quarter, primarily due to a reduction in gross adds, as a slowdown in customer activity in the fixed market offset growth in nexfibre areas. The average download speed across the company's broadband base climbed 17% year over year to 368 Mbps.
VodafoneZiggo revenues rose 2.8% on a reported basis and 1.6% on a rebased basis to $1.114 billion. The rebased increase was primarily due to continued growth in mobile and B2B fixed revenues, partially offset by a decline in the business-to-consumer fixed customer base.
VodafoneZiggo continues to drive momentum in mobile and convergence, as FMC net adds increased 22,700 to almost 2.7 million, delivering significant Net Promoter Scores, along with customer loyalty benefits. FMC penetration remained stable at 48% year over year.
Mobile postpaid net adds increased 22,300, alongside growth in mobile postpaid ARPU of 3.4% year over year, supported by the price indexation implemented in October. The broadband base contracted by 23,500 in the quarter against an improvement of 3,000 in the previous quarter, as a decline of 26,600 consumers was partially offset by an increase of 3,100 in B2B.
Operating Details
Adjusted EBITDA declined 6.9% year over year to $581.4 million in the first quarter. On a rebased basis, EBITDA decreased 6.8%.
Switzerland’s EBITDA, on a rebased basis, increased 0.4% from the year-ago quarter.
Belgium’s EBITDA, on a rebased basis, rose 0.2% year over year.
Ireland’s EBITDA, on a rebased basis, declined 4.9% year over year.
The company reported an operating income of $22.6 million in the reported quarter compared with an operating income of $37.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
Balance Sheet & Cash Flow
As of Mar 31, 2024, Liberty Global had $4.7 billion of cash, investments under SMAs and unused borrowing capacity, including $1.2 billion in corporate cash and no material debt maturities until 2030. This compares with $5.3 billion of cash, investments under SMAs and unused borrowing capacity in the previous quarter.
In the first quarter, the total principal amount of debt and finance leases was $15.7 billion for continuing operations compared with $15.9 billion in the previous quarter. The average debt tenor is 4.6 years, with approximately 10% not due until 2030 or later.
Cash provided by operating activities was $245.7 million, down 20.2% year over year.
The negative adjusted free cash flow was $185.4 million in the first quarter against an adjusted free cash flow of $527.6 million in the previous quarter. The negative adjusted free cash flow in the year-ago quarter was $178.4 million.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Liberty Global currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the Consumer Discretionary sector are Disney DIS, Reynolds Consumer Products REYN and Roblox RBLX, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Shares of Disney have jumped 22.4% year to date. DIS is set to report second-quarter fiscal 2024 results on May 7.
Shares of Reynolds Consumer Products have gained 6.4% year to date. REYN is slated to report first-quarter 2024 results on May 8.
Shares of Roblox have plunged 20% year to date. RBLX is set to report first-quarter 2024 results on May 9.
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