Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) reported Q1 revenue for the quarter came in at $2.88 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.82 billion.

Q1 Highlights

• Q1 reported revenue growth of 0.3%; rebased1 revenue decrease of 0.3%
• Q1 operating income increased 166% YoY to $280.6 million
• Q1 rebased1 OCF2 declined 3.6% to $1,150.3 million
• Q1 property & equipment additions spend at 22.8% of revenue as compared to 24.4% in Q1 2019
• Built 123,000 new premises during Q1, including 93,000 new premises in the U.K. & Ireland
• Solid balance sheet with $10.3 billion of liquidity3
• Comprising $5.4 billion of cash, $2.0 billion of investments held under Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) and $2.9 billion of unused borrowing capacity
• Net leverage4 of 3.7x
• Fully-swapped borrowing cost of 4.1% on debt balance of $26.9 billion
• Repurchased nearly $500 million of stock through April 30, 2020

CEO Mike Fries stated, "Along with the rest of the world, we’ve been focused in recent weeks on tackling the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been primarily concerned with ensuring the health and safety of our employees and providing robust and reliable connectivity for our customers. I am happy to report that our broadband networks have readily absorbed increases exceeding 20% in downstream and 50% in upstream bandwidth across our footprint. Our recent investments in infrastructure, gigabit speeds and connectivity products have proven invaluable to our customers.

In addition to delivering critical telecommunications services, we have launched a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing our customers’ experience during these difficult times. At Virgin Media, for example, we have provided free kids programming, greater connectivity to critical public services such as NHS hospitals and bigger data packages for our mobile customers. On the continent, Telenet and UPC have launched similar plans ranging from free broadband speed increases to improved connectivity for nursing care facilities so that families can stay in touch with their loved ones virtually. Connectivity is at the heart of our company and we remain unwavering in our commitment to providing our customers and communities with the very best broadband experience possible, especially now.

As a critical service provider with limited exposure to those sectors of the economy most impacted by the pandemic, our Q1 results were broadly in-line with our expectations. At Virgin Media, we held our fixed-line customer base largely flat while increasing customer ARPU 1.2%. Virgin also delivered a record 72,000 postpaid mobile additions in Q1, bringing our FMC penetration to 22%, up 250 basis point from Q1’19. This result was powered by our Oomph! FMC bundles which feature super-fast broadband speeds combined with attractive mobile offers. We saw continued progress at UPC Switzerland as our fixed-line customer losses nearly halved year over year and our FMC penetration increased to 21%, up from 15% twelve months ago. Our Swiss operation continues to track to plan despite increased competition in the market and we remain particularly encouraged by the free cash flow profile of the business. And in Belgium, we experienced a similar trend with a small decline in fixed customers offset by an increase in customer ARPU. On the mobile front, Telenet added 6,000 mobile subscribers in the quarter, pushing FMC penetration to 45%, up from 42% in Q1 2019.

We are still assessing the medium-term impact from the COVID-19 crisis on our financial guidance and expect to update investors on our second quarter earnings call. For now, however, we remain encouraged by our operating prospects and do not currently see the need to change or suspend our full-year guidance. Meanwhile, our balance sheet remains in great shape and we have over $10 billion of liquidity. We did remain active on share buybacks, spending nearly $500 million from mid-February until the end of April, during which time we acquired nearly 29 million shares at an average price of approximately $16.75."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Liberty Global (LBTYA) click here.