• Q2 net loss decreased by $92 million year-over-year to $14 million
• Revenue 1% higher, adjusted segment EBITDA up 8% on rebased basis
• Network expansion on track, ~80,000 upgrades/new builds in H1
• Successfully raised $700 million for refinancing in July
(MIAMI, FL – August 8, 2017) – Cable & Wireless Communications Limited (CWC) is the leading telecommunications operator in substantially all of its consumer markets, which are predominantly located in the Caribbean and Latin America.
It provides entertainment, information and communication services to 3.5 million mobile, 0.4 million television, 0.6 million internet and 0.6 million fixed-line telephony subscribers.
In addition, CWC delivers B2B services and provides wholesale services over its sub-sea and terrestrial networks that connect over 40 markets across the region.
Liberty Global’s Acquisition of CWC
On May 16, 2016, a subsidiary of Liberty Global acquired CWC (the “Liberty Global Transaction”). Revenue, Adjusted Segment EBITDA1 and subscriber statistics have been presented herein using Liberty Global’s definitions for all periods presented unless otherwise noted.
Further adjustments to these metrics are possible as the integration process continues. Significant policy adjustments have been considered in our calculation of rebased growth rates for revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA.
For additional information on Liberty Global’s definition of Adjusted Segment EBITDA and rebased growth rates, see footnotes 1 and 2, respectively. A reconciliation of net earnings (loss) to Adjusted Segment EBITDA is included in the Financial Results, Adjusted Segment EBITDA Reconciliation & Property, Equipment and Intangible Asset Additions3 section below.
In addition, effective for the 2016 fiscal year, CWC changed its fiscal year end from March 31 to December 31 to conform with Liberty Global.
Operating highlights:
• Reported an organic RGU4 decline of 16,000 in Q2, including declines in Video, Internet and Telephony subscribers of 4,000, 3,000 and 9,000, respectively
• Mobile subscribers5 decreased by 48,000 on an organic basis in Q2
• Q2 subscriber highlights across our largest markets were as follows:
◦ In Panama, we added 10,000 RGUs during the quarter, including 4,000 internet and 3,000 cable video RGUs, as we continued to generate momentum behind our refreshed bundled offers and network improvement activities, which enabled faster speeds of up to 300 Mbps. We also continued to grow our DTH6 base, adding 3,000 RGUs in Q2. On the mobile front, we lost 16,000 low-ARPU prepaid subscribers in the quarter;
◦ In Jamaica, RGUs decreased by 12,000 in Q2 as subscribers declined across all fixed-line categories. Our mobile base grew by 3,000 subscribers as we continued to target increased market share;
◦ In the Bahamas, we reported a small RGU decline of 1,000 in Q2 as continued penetration of our growing Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) network generated 2,000 video adds, offset by a decline of 3,000 in voice subscribers. Our mobile subscriber base fell by 24,000 following the entrance of a new competitor into the market in late 2016;
◦ In Barbados, RGUs declined by 4,000, primarily due to lower fixed-line telephony subscribers and, to a lesser extent, declines in video and broadband caused by competition; and
◦ In Trinidad, we added 2,000 RGUs as growth in fixed-line telephony, through bundling promotions, more than offset a decline in video subscribers due to continued competitive intensity
Footnotes
1 Adjusted Segment EBITDA is the primary measure used by our management to evaluate the company’s performance. Adjusted Segment EBITDA is also a key factor that is used by our internal decision makers to evaluate the effectiveness of our management for purposes of annual and other incentive compensation plans. We define EBITDA as earnings before net finance expense, income taxes and depreciation and amortization. As we use the term, Adjusted Segment EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before share-based compensation, provisions and provision releases related to significant litigation, impairment, restructuring and other operating items and related-party fees and allocations. Other operating items include (i) gains and losses on the disposition of long-lived assets, (ii) third-party costs directly associated with successful and unsuccessful acquisitions and dispositions, including legal, advisory and due diligence fees, as applicable, and (iii) other acquisition-related items, such as gains and losses on the settlement of contingent consideration. Our internal decision makers believe Adjusted Segment EBITDA is a meaningful measure because it represents a transparent view of our recurring operating performance that is unaffected by our capital structure and allows management to readily view operating trends and identify strategies to improve operating performance. We believe our Adjusted Segment EBITDA measure is useful to investors because it is one of the bases for comparing our performance with the performance of other companies in the same or similar industries, although our measure may not be directly comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Adjusted Segment EBITDA should be viewed as a measure of operating performance that is a supplement to, and not a substitute for EBIT, net earnings (loss), cash flow from operating activities and other EU-IFRS or IASB-IFRS measures of income or cash flows. A reconciliation of net loss to Adjusted Segment EBITDA is presented in the Unitymedia section of this release.
2 For purposes of calculating rebased growth rates on a comparable basis for the CWC borrowing group, we have adjusted the historical revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 to (i) reflect the impacts of the alignment to Liberty Global’s accounting policies, (ii) include the pre-acquisition revenue and Segment OCF of the Carve-out Entities for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 to the same extent that the revenue and Segment OCF of the Carve-out Entities, as defined below, are included in our results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and (iii) reflect the translation of our rebased amounts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 at the applicable average foreign currency exchange rates that were used to translate CWC’s results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016. The most significant adjustments to conform to Liberty Global’s policies relate to the capitalization of certain installation activities that previously were expensed, the reflection of certain lease arrangements as capital leases that previously were accounted for as operating leases and the reflection of certain time-based licenses as operating expenses that previously were capitalized. We have not adjusted the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 to eliminate nonrecurring items or to give retroactive effect to any changes in estimates that have been implemented in the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. The adjustments reflected in our rebased amounts have not been prepared with a view towards complying with Article 11 of Regulation S-X. In addition, the rebased growth rates are not necessarily indicative of the rebased revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA that would have occurred if the acquisition of CWC had occurred on the date assumed for purposes of calculating our rebased amounts or the revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA that will occur in the future. The rebased growth percentages have been presented as a basis for assessing growth rates on a comparable basis, and are not presented as a measure of our pro forma financial performance.
3 Property and equipment additions (or in the case of CWC, property, equipment and intangible asset additions) include capital expenditures on an accrual basis, amounts financed under vendor financing or capital lease arrangements and other non-cash additions.
4 RGU is separately a Basic Video Subscriber, Enhanced Video Subscriber, DTH Subscriber, Internet Subscriber or Telephony Subscriber (each as defined and described below). A home, residential multiple dwelling unit, or commercial unit may contain one or more RGUs. For example, if a residential customer in our Austrian market subscribed to our enhanced video service, fixed-line telephony service and broadband internet service, the customer would constitute three RGUs. Total RGUs is the sum of Basic Video, Enhanced Video, DTH, Internet and Telephony Subscribers. RGUs generally are counted on a unique premises basis such that a given premises does not count as more than one RGU for any given service. On the other hand, if an individual receives one of our services in two premises (e.g., a primary home and a vacation home), that individual will count as two RGUs for that service. Each bundled cable, internet or telephony service is counted as a separate RGU regardless of the nature of any bundling discount or promotion. Non-paying subscribers are counted as subscribers during their free promotional service period. Some of these subscribers may choose to disconnect after their free service period. Services offered without charge on a long-term basis (e.g., VIP subscribers or free service to employees) generally are not counted as RGUs. We do not include subscriptions to mobile services in our externally reported RGU counts. In this regard, our June 30, 2017 RGU counts exclude our separately reported postpaid and prepaid mobile subscribers.
5 Our mobile subscriber count represents the number of active subscriber identification module (“SIM”) cards in service rather than services provided. For example, if a mobile subscriber has both a data and voice plan on a smartphone this would equate to one mobile subscriber. Alternatively, a subscriber who has a voice and data plan for a mobile handset and a data plan for a laptop (via a dongle) would be counted as two mobile subscribers. Customers who do not pay a recurring monthly fee are excluded from our mobile telephony subscriber counts after periods of inactivity ranging from 30 to 90 days, based on industry standards within the respective country.
6 DTH Subscriber is a home, residential multiple dwelling unit or commercial unit that receives our video programming broadcast directly via a geosynchronous satellite.