Millicom reported revenues up 17.3 percent to USD 1.15 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, aided by recent acquisitions in Panama (Cable Onda) and Nicaragua (Telefonica). The new units and lower expenses helped increase operating profit by 20.7 percent year on year to USD 129 million, with net profit coming in at USD 223 million compared to a USD 94 million loss in the year-earlier quarter.
In its main market of Latin America, the company’s fourth-quarter EBITDA surged 23.5 percent year on year on a reported basis to USD 648 million, or 2.0 percent year on year on an organic basis excluding acquisitions. OCF (EBITDA less Capex) for the quarter came in at USD 285 million, up 60.1 percent on a reported basis or 10.6 percent on an organic basis.
By country, organic service revenue growth for the quarter was again strongest in Costa Rica (+6.3%), Guatemala (+3.7%) and Costa Rica (3.5%), and weakest in El Salvador (-4.4%) and Paraguay (-1.2%). Bolivia was adversely affected by the recent social unrest and organic service revenue growth came in slightly negative (-0.2%) in the quarter.
In terms of customers, Millicom’s mobile base increased 18.3 percent year on year to 39.8 million, including 1.1 million in the final 3 months of 2019, around 109,000 of them postpaid. Total 4G customers were up 46.8 percent year on year to 15.4 million, aided by the acquisition of mobile businesses in Nicaragua and Panama. Millicom also added a further 63,000 customer relationships to its HFC network, for a total of 3.46 million at the end of December.
CEO Mauricio Ramos described 2019 as “a transformational year” for Millicom in view of its decision to acquire Telefonica's mobile assets in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua and divest its operations in Chad as part of a strategy to focus on Latin America. He also reiterated the company's medium term goal to deliver mid-single-digit organic service revenue growth, mid-to-high single-digit organic EBITDA growth, and around 10 percent OCF organic growth in Latin America.
