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Liberty Puerto Rico reports $359M in 3Q21 revenue

Liberty Puerto Rico is still reporting positive results from its acquisition of AT&T Puerto Rico’s assets, which nearly tripled its revenues to $359 million during the third quarter ended Sept. 30, when compared to the $114.4 million for the same year-ago period.

The report shows that Liberty Puerto Rico’s revenue grew by 214% and 2% on a reported and rebased basis, respectively.

“Our results for this quarter reflect growth, along with the adjustments of incorporating the mobile operation into our business,” said Liberty Puerto Rico CEO Naji Khoury. “The numbers were positive and show that our efforts are headed in the right direction, and we have retained customer trust.”

In the financial report, Liberty Latin America — Liberty Puerto Rico’s parent company — said the growth benefited from the inclusion of Liberty Mobile in the quarter.

“Rebased revenue performance was driven by double-digit growth in its legacy fixed operations partly offset by a decline at Liberty Mobile as subscription revenue growth was offset by lower equipment, B2B and roaming revenue year-over-year,” it stated.

During the quarter, Liberty launched a new brand identity to integrate its new mobile division, as News is my Business reported.

It also reported 13,000 fixed subscriber additions which “showed continuing momentum in Puerto Rico with growth led by increased broadband penetration.” Liberty Mobile’s overall base decreased by 3,000 subscribers, but the postpaid base grew by 14,000, it stated.

“Regarding our mobile business, we have been focused on the postpaid segment and we have seen very positive results,” Khoury said.

“We’ve put our full attention on offerings and distribution of postpaid services with aggressive new rates and promotions, leveraging the combination of fixed and mobile services. We registered a boost in this segment, with 14,000 new customers during the third quarter,” he added.

“We haven’t been focused on the prepaid segment and therefore, we’ve seen a loss of prepaid mobile customers due to inventory and distribution matters. We’re confident we will turn that business around once we start dedicating efforts toward it,” he said.

This quarter, Liberty Puerto Rico added 4,400 new homes passed with its ‘Fiber to the Home’ connection and “we are currently adding new communities so we can bring our services to more customers around the island,” Khoury said.

Meanwhile, Liberty Puerto Rico reported and rebased Adjusted Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization (OIBDA) growth of 145% and 3%, respectively.

“Reported growth was driven by the inclusion of Liberty Mobile in the quarter. Rebased performance was driven by the previously mentioned revenue growth, partly offset by the net impact of higher mobile roaming expenses, video programming rates, and labor costs, and lower equipment costs,” the company stated.

“We incurred integration costs of $2 million related to the Liberty Mobile acquisition in the quarter mainly related to our rebranding and expect to incur approximately $10 million of additional integration costs in the fourth quarter,” it added.

The company also reported results for the nine months ended Sept. 30, when Liberty Puerto Rico generated $1.08 billion in revenue, up by 229% and 9% on a reported and rebased basis, respectively.

Liberty Puerto Rico’s outstanding debt was nearly $2.5 billion at the end of the quarter.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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