Liberty Latin America (LILAK) Reports Q1 Revenues Miss

Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ: LILAK) reported Q1 EPS of $. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.16 billion versus the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion.

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.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Liberty Latin America (LILAK) click here.

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