Liberty Puerto Rico reports $624M in revenue for ’20; $296M in 4Q20
Saying that the “integration of AT&T’s Puerto Rico and USVI operations [are] progressing well,” Liberty Latin America announced that its subsidiary, Liberty Puerto Rico, generated $624 million in revenue during the 12 months ended Dec. 30, 2020, representing a 9.9% increase year-over-year.
In its latest financial report, Liberty Puerto Rico was also attributed $296 million in revenue during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, or a 14.6% increase over the $105.4 million reported for the same year-ago quarter.
“Operating and financial results for the group continued to improve in the seasonally strong fourth quarter. Our markets are steadily recovering from the adverse impacts of COVID-19, however the environment remains challenging, and given the circumstances, we were pleased to deliver robust, positive adjusted free cash flow in 2020,” said Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair.
In 2020, Liberty Puerto Rico had a “record year,” adding 121,000 broadband customers in fiscal 2020 and more than 25,000 homes.
In its report, Liberty Latin America explained that its reported revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2020 was driven by the addition of $174 million in revenue from the AT&T acquisition, as well as “double-digit growth in our legacy Liberty Puerto Rico operations.”
“We remain active and disciplined in pursuing our inorganic strategy. The businesses we acquired from AT&T finished the year well and we are on-track with our integration plans, including the launch of some exciting new propositions for our customers in 2021,” Nair said.
Liberty Puerto Rico closed its acquisition of AT&T Oct. 31, 2020, at which point Liberty Puerto Rico began to provide mobile services. According to the financial report, Liberty Puerto Rico added 1,022,600 pre-and post-paid wireless customers through the acquisition.
“During our two months of ownership, subscribers were relatively flat,” the company said in the financial report.
For the year, Liberty Latin America reported $3.8 billion in revenue, $92 million of operating income and $1.5 billion in adjusted Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization.
“COVID-19 negatively impacted our financial performance overall, particularly across our mobile and B2B operations, however we produced improving results through the year and sequential revenue, operating income and adjusted OIBDA growth in Q4,” Nair said.
“Overall, despite headwinds due to COVID-19, our operations and connectivity-based product offerings proved resilient in 2020,” Nair said.
“As we look to 2021, we are focused on delivering top-line growth as markets continue to recover, expanding our high-speed networks through aggressive new build programs, integrating our operations in Puerto Rico to create attractive converged propositions, and generating adjusted free cash flow over 30% higher than in 2020,” he added.
The report shows that Liberty Puerto Rico is carrying some $2.3 billion in debt, mostly associated with the financing it took out to purchase AT&T’s wireless assets last year.
Liberty Puerto Rico CEO Naji Khoury is expected to speak to members of the media today on aspects of the local operation.
