In its main market of Latin America, the company increased revenues 9.7 percent to USD 1.50 billion, including its joint ventures in Guatemala and Honduras. Organic service revenues grew 1.0 percent to USD 1.38 billion and EBITDA rose 0.7 percent on an organic basis to USD 620 million, excluding the impact of IFRS 16, while the EBITDA margin improved by 3 percentage points year-on-year to 41.4 percent. By country, organic service revenue growth was strongest in Costa Rica (+4.6%) and Guatemala (+3.2%), while growth lagged in El Salvador (-4.9%) and Panama (-2.9%) during the quarter.
In terms of customer numbers, Millicom added a record 99,000 customer relationships to its HFC network, for a total of 3.39 million at the end of September. Home ARPU dipped to USD 29.2, down USD 0.2 compared to the previous quarter, but total homes passed by Millicom’s HFC network rose to 11.635 million compared to 9.908 million a year earlier.
In the mobile segment, the operator’s Tigo brand increased its customer base by 17.3 percent year on year to 38.59 million due above all to its acquisitions in Panama and Nicaragua. Tigo’s LTE customers rose 51.2 percent year on year to 13.54 million although mobile ARPU was down 11.5 percent to USD 7.0.
Millicom said the organic results were below its expectations in the quarter and year-to-date due to a slowdown in economic activity, which adversely affected its prepaid mobile and B2B businesses in particular, while competition in prepaid mobile has intensified in some countries. As a result, it cut its outlook for 3-5 percent organic service revenue growth this year to slightly above 2.0 percent and organic EBITDA growth from 4-6 percent to about 2.5 percent.
