Liberty Global falls short as price hike hits customer numbers

Source: Liberty Global

Liberty Global’s third-quarter earnings and revenue have fallen short of analysts’ expectations, with the cable giant posting a rebased sales drop of 4.3% to US$1.85 billion and a drop in earnings of 66.2% to US$822.7 million.

Liberty Global’s adjusted EBITDA dropped 16.9% on a rebased basis to US$597.7 million.

The drop in revenue came despite the positive impact on fixed revenue of price rises across Liberty’s operating companies and a return to positive broadband net additions in the UK.

Operationally, Liberty customer losses increased across its markets except for the Virgin Media O2 UK JV with Telefónica.

In Switzerland, it lost 11,100 customers compared with 3,200 for the same period last year, while in Belgium it lost a whopping 20,700 customers compared with 7,700. Overall customers losses excluding the UK and the Netherlands amounted to 39,100.

VodafoneZiggo, Liberty’s Dutch JV with Vodafone meanwhile lost 38,600 customers in the quarter, up from 19,500 last year.

In the UK, on the other hand, VMO2 gained 32,500 customers, up from a gain of 12,300 last year.

Liberty nevertheless confirmed all 2023 operating company guidance metrics except VMO2 revenue, which was downgraded from ‘growth’ to ‘stable’.

Switzerland’s Sunrise saw positive growth in mobile subs but a decline in fixed broadband dure to reduced promotiouns following a price increase. In Belgium, wholly-owned Telenet saw its broadband and mobile base decline following price hikes and a temporary halt to marketing campaigns. VodafoneZiggo could highlight fixed-mobile convergence additions despite a decline in its broadband base following price increases.

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said that the quarter had seen a number of “milestones to drive future value creation” and added that the company’s next results call would likely deliver “a longer update on these and other core initiatives that will reduce the significant value gap we perceive in our stock price”.