Liberty Global posts lower revenues for Q4, 2022

Liberty Global’s revenues decreased by 4.1% to $1.8bn in its Q4 2022 financial results, while its adjusted EBITDA year on year was down 13.4%. Q4 earnings (losses) from continuing operations decreased 833.9% y-o-y on a reported basis to $4.68bn.

Commenting on the results, CEO Mike Fries said: “Our fourth quarter and full year results demonstrate the continued resilience of our business model as we delivered on all guidance metrics, despite challenging macro conditions. There remains ever-increasing demand across our footprint for reliable access to high-quality fixed and mobile connectivity and we continue driving product innovation to ensure superior customer experiences. Financially, while we’re not immune from the impacts of high energy and labour costs across our core FMC businesses, we continue to take actions to maintain strong operating margins while further investing in our networks.”

Mike Fries

Drilling down into operating highlights across the company’s portfolio, Liberty Global said commercial momentum at Sunrise in Switzerland was strong. “In Q4, Sunrise achieved 44,000 mobile postpaid net adds, driven by the Sunrise Up and yallo propositions, and 9,200 broadband net adds, demonstrating positive acquisition activity through promotional periods and strong contributions from yallo offerings”.

In Belgium, the company reported “continued growth in Telenet’s FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) customer base in Q4 2022 driven by end-of-year campaigns and growth in the mobile customer base of 10,500 postpaid mobile net additions. During 2022, Telenet entered into a binding agreement with Fluvius to develop ‘the data network of the future’ in Flanders, which is expected to close in summer 2023”.

Turning to the UK, the company said that the Virgin Media O2 joint-venture showed “continued customer growth in both fixed and mobile driven by demand for connectivity, resulting in 71,100 postpaid mobile net adds and 22,700 broadband net adds in Q4. Average speed across the broadband base increased 41% YoY to 301 Mbps, approximately 5x higher than the national average. In just over a year since the original launch, VMO2’s flagship converged Volt bundles have continued to perform well with 1.3 million customers now taking a Volt bundle. Meanwhile, Project Lightning passed 519,000 new premises in 2022, meeting the stated full year build target.”

As for the VodafoneZiggo JV in the Netherlands, Liberty Global said the platform continues to improve its momentum despite promotional intensity in the Dutch market. “FMC households grew 22,800 in Q4, bringing the total to over 1.5 million converged households, and FMC SIMs increased by 31,400 in Q4 to a total of nearly 2.6 million, delivering significant net promoter scores and customer loyalty benefits.”

Concluding, Fries noted the company’s recent purchase of a stake in Vodafone: “We remain committed to a disciplined capital allocation in our ventures portfolio while driving opportunistic financial investments, such as our recently acquired 5% interest in Vodafone, an undervalued asset with numerous near and mid-term catalysts.”