Liberty Latin America Reports First Quarter 2021 Results

Liberty Latin America Reports First Quarter 2021 Results

05 May 2021 in

Liberty Latin America Reports First Quarter 2021 Results

  • Record Q1 RGU additions of 76,000 led by C&W and Puerto Rico
  • Revenue up 25% driven by Puerto Rico acquisition, rebased revenue flat
  • Operating income of $178 million, up 65% YoY
  • Adj. OIBDA reported growth of 23% to $449 million, or rebased growth of 3%

Denver, Colorado - May 5, 2021: Liberty Latin America Ltd. (“Liberty Latin America” or “LLA”) (NASDAQ: LILA and LILAK, OTC Link: LILAB) today announced its financial and operating results for the three months (“Q1”) ended March 31, 2021.

CEO Balan Nair commented, “We had a strong start to the year as our focus on volume resulted in record Q1 RGU additions of 76,000, over 25% higher than the prior year, as well as continued recovery in our mobile operations. Overall, our markets are beginning to recover from the worst impacts of the pandemic, however, the operating environment remains challenging given reduced tourism and government imposed lockdowns and restrictions continuing during the quarter.”

“Fixed subscribers grew across all of our markets, with particularly strong performance in Puerto Rico where we maintained momentum from 2020 and saw close to three times as many RGU additions in the first quarter as compared to the prior-year period. There remains a significant broadband penetration opportunity across our region and during the first quarter we added or upgraded approximately 130,000 homes using fiber technologies to bring high-speed connectivity to more customers. Mobile additions were also particularly strong for the first quarter, driven by over 60,000 adds in Panama.”

“We reported $1.2 billion in revenue, $178 million of operating income and $449 million in Adjusted OIBDA in the first quarter. Despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on our financial performance, particularly across our mobile and B2B operations, we delivered rebased Adjusted OIBDA growth of 3%, our strongest result in a year. Furthermore, we had a record Q1 in terms of cash flow from operations and Adjusted Free Cash Flow, posting $204 million and $58 million, respectively.”

“As part of our proactive balance sheet management, we successfully refinanced over $1 billion of our debt across Puerto Rico and Chile in March. These financings improved our average debt tenor, reduced our borrowing costs, and added $250 million of incremental capital to our corporate balance sheet.”

“Overall, we started the year well and anticipate that the regional operating environment will improve as vaccination rates increase and local economies recover in the coming months and quarters. In addition to our organic growth opportunities, we continue to drive the integration of AT&T's Puerto Rico and USVI operations and are working towards a summer completion of the acquisition of Telefónica's Costa Rica assets.”

 

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