Liberty Puerto Rico reports $1.4B in full year ’22 revenue; $374M in 4Q
Liberty Puerto Rico reported $1.47 billion in revenue for the full year 2022 that ended Dec. 31, remaining virtually flat year-over-year when compared with the $1.44 billion on record for the prior year, according to its most recent annual report.
For the fourth quarter ended that same date, the company reported $373.7 million in revenue, a steady result when compared with the $371.2 million on record for the same year-ago quarter.
The company’s growth was driven by some 40,000 new subscribers during the year that was partially offset by the negative impact of $5 million in customer credits following Hurricane Fiona, the company explained.
Meanwhile, residential mobile revenue was also flat compared with the prior-year period, as higher volumes of handset sales were offset by lower average revenue per user (known as ARPU) from mobile services, including the impact of higher contract asset amortization driven by increases in handset sales and subsidy levels, and a decline in the average number of prepaid mobile subscribers.
Puerto Rico is the largest market for Liberty Latin America, which also has operations in Costa Rica, Panama and the Caribbean.
“We continue to invest to expand our network with fiber-to-the-home, utilizing Federal Communications Commission-allocated funds to make our infrastructure more resilient,” Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said in a call with analysts.
“In mobile, Puerto Rico was another market where we recorded record postpaid adds in the year, adding 85,000 subscribers. We continue to maintain very low levels of churn at around 1% a month for our postpaid base helped by the quality of our network and [fixed-mobile convergence] offerings,” he said.
Consumer mobile is Liberty’s largest product in Puerto Rico with just under 50% market share, attributed to its acquisition of the former AT&T Puerto Rico’s assets.
This year, the company is focused on completing the integration of AT&T’s assets, which will represent a $70 million impact to the operation by 2024, Nair said.
“We completed a key milestone by setting up and engaging our mobile core at the end of last year. Our focus is now deployment of the IT stack and migrating customers into our platforms, thereby replacing services currently provided by AT&T under our [transitional service agreement],” Nair added.
“Consistent with our acquisition plan, we aim to complete the integration by the end of this year,” he said during the call.
Finally, Liberty Puerto Rico’s Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization (OIBDA) was $120 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, representing an 11% year-over-year decline.
“Several factors contributed to this year-over-year decline, including $7 million in revenue credits and costs associated with Hurricane Fiona, increased facility and maintenance costs and the adverse gross margin impact of robust handset sales in the quarter as compared to last year,” Nair said.
