Liberty Global reported revenue in Europe down 2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to USD 3.519 billion, pulled down by the deconsolidation of operations in the Netherlands after the creation of the VodafoneZiggo joint venture, the strong US dollar against the weaker the British pound and lower organic revenue growth. The company recognised USD 31.5 million of revenue from the VodafoneZiggo joint venture. Revenues for Western Europe declined almost 20 percent to USD 3.218 billion, with UK operations showing a 10.8 fall and Switzerland/Austria down 2.2 percent. Belgium lifted 8.4 percent and Germany 1.9 percent. For Central and Eastern Europe, revenues rose 5.2 percent.
A soft start in the UK meant a lower than expected rebased operating cash flow at 4 percent, including a USD 6 million headwind associated with the settlement of an operational contingency in the UK. The company now expects a rebased OCF growth for 2017 at 5 percent. The company had guided for an improvement of 6-7 percent for full year 2017 from 4 percent in 2016, and an acceleration to 7-8 percent in 2018 and after.
Operating cash flow fell 4.1 percent to USD 1.605 billion. The operating profit slid over 18 percent to USD 431 million, negative impacted by the deconsolidation of the Netherlands, while the net loss narrowed to USD 293 million from 334 million the year before.
CEO Mike Fries said the company was able to add 244,300 revenue-generating units during the quarter, up 40 percent from the year before, while implementing price increases across several European markets. The improvement in subscriber additions was led by the UK and Germany, both of which contributed to the company’s best first quarter video performance in the last ten years.
Liberty Global had 40,000 new customer relationships, with the higher number of revenue-generating units added an organic basis helped by the UK, Germany and Central and Eastern Europe, with losses at Belgium and Switzerland/Austria. Group video attrition improved to a loss of 15,000 RGUs. The company’s mobile base now stands at 6.4 million subscribers, including 5.1 million (80%) postpaid. The number of organic postpaid mobile additions went to 91,000, driven by Belgium and the UK.
