Liberty Latin America (LLA) added over 100,000 net subscribers during the second quarter of 2024 across Central America and C&W Caribbean.
This is the result of the company’s focus on broadband and postpaid mobile additions.
This represents more than double the prior year and is 28% higher than the first quarter.
The results were driven by strong mobile growth in Panama, where the company successfully won customers following the exit of a competitor, and continued momentum in Costa Rica.
Liberty Latin America also recently announced the combination of the business in Costa Rica with Tigo.
“We continued to drive operational and financial growth across most of our businesses in the second quarter with notably strong performances in Panama, Costa Rica and the Caribbean. In Puerto Rico, whilst we experienced additional challenges following completion of the mobile subscriber migration, we remain confident of improved performance in the second half,” said Balan Nair, CEO of Liberty Latin America.
During this quarter, Liberty Latin America and Millicom agree to combine operations in Costa Rica, under the terms of the all-stock agreement. Liberty Latin America and its minority partner in Costa Rica will hold an approximate 86% interest and Millicom 14% in the joint operations, with the final ownership percentage to be confirmed at closing.
“The transaction reinforces the parties’ commitment to Costa Rica by creating a scaled platform and accelerating investments in fiber network expansion. In a market that is undergoing rapid technological advancements with the deployment of fiber networks by multiple operators, this combination increases fiber competition, ensuring high-quality, good value services and access to the digital economy,” expressed the company.
Nair mentioned that by combining Liberty and Tigo, the fixed operations will accelerate the transition to FTTH and will enable them to deliver exceptional high-speed services for consumers.
“In addition, we just launched 5G across the country and are gaining traction in the market as shown by our mobile growth,” commented the CEO of Liberty Latin America.
Furthermore, Nair said the company anticipates a significant inflection in financial performance.
“As we move past impacts from our Puerto Rico migration and begin to execute our growth plans in that market, we maintain a healthy and positive momentum across the rest of the group. In Puerto Rico, we now expect synergies, operating cost improvements and top line sequential growth will drive Adjusted OIBDA to more than $45 million per month towards the end of the second half,” remarked the CEO.
“We remain confident in achieving our medium-term targets, and repurchased 12 million shares in the first half of the year, as well as redeemed our convertible notes that were due in July. In aggregate, this represents over $300 million of capital, which is equivalent to our entire spend in 2023.”
In July 2024, Hurricane Beryl impacted our Jamaica operation and certain smaller operations within C&W Caribbean, resulting in varying degrees of damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure in these markets,” said the company.
For this reason, Liberty Latin America expects to experience adverse subscriber and financial impacts during the remainder of 2024.
The estimations are revenue and adjusted OIBDA will be negatively impacted by $10 million to $20 million for the remainder of 2024, primarily during the third quarter, based on certain factors, such as when power is fully restored to the impacted areas.
“We will incur property and equipment additions of approximately $10 million to $20 million to replace infrastructure and equipment that has been damaged beyond repair or to enhance network resiliency,” detailed the company.
