Cable group Liberty Global reported a slowdown in the first-quarter to organic net additions of just 68,000 revenue-generating units. The company said the weak performance was due mainly to higher video losses in Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland. Total RGUS rose by 80,000 in the three months to 56.0 million at the end of March, with growth held back by higher churn in the Netherlands after the takeover and integration of Ziggo and price increases in Germany. TV subscribers fell by 169,000 compared to the end of 2014 to 24.178 million, while customers for the Horizon TV platform rose by 171,000 in the quarter. RGU additions were back on track in April, with net adds running well ahead of April 2014, the company said.
Liberty Global's RGUs were still up by around 1 million from Q1 2014, and price increases helped the operator grow first-quarter organic revenues 2 percent to USD 4.5 billion. Excluding currency effects, ARPU rose 4.7 percent year-on-year. Operating cash flow was up 1 percent on an organic basis to USD 2.1 billion, while operating profit fell 4 percent to USD 558 million. The net loss widened to USD 538 million from USD 79 million a year ago due to forex losses and a gain in the year-earlier period on the sale of Chellomedia. Capital expenditure increased to USD 925 million or 20.5 percent of revenue from USD 910 million a year ago, while free cash flow dipped to USD 330 million from USD 336 million. Liberty Global said it still expects to meet its full-year targets, including mid-single digit organic growth in operating cash flow and free cash flow of USD 2.5 billion.
