Liberty Global noted that it has put its operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, along with its DTH operations and its former operations in Austria, plus the LiLAC Group, into discontinued operations. The company said that together, all the disposals represent a total enterprise value of USD 31 billion and net cash proceeds to the company, when completed, of USD 16 billion. The company will continue to be the largest cable operator in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Poland and Slovakia, and also generate RGUs and revenue from its VodafoneZiggo joint venture in the Netherlands. The sale of Vodafone is still on track, with completion seen happening in mid-year. The company also started a broad reorganisation plan in January aimed at streamlining its operating structure.
Organic RGU net cable losses amounted to 33,000 in the quarter, compared to gain of 4,000 the year before, with improved performance at CEE and Virgin Media more than offset by weakness in Belgium and Switzerland. By product, video and data adds showed a year-on-year decrease, while telephony net adds increased. At Mobile, there were 68,200 additions for postpaid and 40,500 losses for prepaid, resulting in a total of 27,700 net adds.
For the full year, the company reported revenues from continuing operations up 2.2 percent to USD 11.957 billion, with the operating cash flow rising 3.5 percent to USD 5.151 billion the operating profit going 10.3 percent higher to USD 839.1 million and the adjusted free cash flow amounting to 107.8 million, all supported by strong performances in Belgium and at Virgin Media. The adjusted free cash flow for the full company went to USD 1.397 billion, a bit under guidance. The company bought back USD 2 billion worth of shares over 2018.
