Broadband Internet service provider Liberty Global Inc. (LBTYA, LBTYB, LBTYK) on Wednesday reported a narrower net loss for the third quarter, helped by higher revenues and lower non-operating expenses. Loss per share for the quarter missed analysts' estimate.
The Englewood, Colorado-based company's third-quarter net loss attributable to stockholders was $120.3 million or $0.45 per share, compared to a net loss of $308.9 million or $1.01 per share in the year ago quarter.
In the previous quarter, the company reported a net loss attributable to stockholders of $93 million or $0.34 per share, hurt largely by increases in realized and unrealized losses on derivative instruments.
Third-quarter net loss from continuing operations narrowed to $59.4 million or $0.54 per share from $282.2 million or $1.02 per hare in the previous year.
On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.43 per share for the third quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
The company reported a net loss of $35.7 million for the quarter, compared to a $278.3 million net loss reported last year. Net earnings attributable to non-controlling interests increased to $84.6 million from $30.6 million.
The latest results included a gain of $25.7 million from discontinued operations related to UPC Slovenia. The company sold UPC Slovenia to Mid Europa Partners on July 15 for EUR 119.5 million in cash.
Revenues for the quarter were $2.824 billion, up from $2.633 billion in the prior year quarter. Seven analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.75 billion for the quarter. The company noted that year-over-year growth stemmed from a combination of internally-generated activity as well as contribution from acquisitions, led by transactions completed by J:COM and Telenet. Second-quarter revenue was $2.65 billion.
Total UPC Broadband Division generated revenues of $1.053 billion, down from last year's $1.128 billion. Telenet (Belgium) revenues for the quarter increased to $439.4 million from $374.8 million. J:COM (Japan) revenues grew to $891.2 million from $686.0 million. VTR (Chile) reported third-quarter revenues of $179.7 million, flat with last year. Corporate and other revenues edged down to $281.0 million from $284.2 million.
Operating income for the quarter rose to $463.8 million from last year's $408.4 million. The company recorded foreign currency transaction gains of $6.7 million in the latest quarter, while it incurred a loss of $286.7 million in foreign currency transaction last year.
Interest expense dropped to $232.3 million from $293.4 million. Realized and unrealized losses due to changes in fair values of certain investments and debt declined to $51 million from $129.2 million. The company reported Realized and unrealized losses on derivative instruments of $226.8 million in the just concluded quarter, compared to a gain of $18.2 million last year.
Consolidated ARPU per customer for the third quarter of 2009 was $47.51, reflecting an increase of 4% from last year.
Organic revenue-generating units or RGU additions were 199,000 in the third quarter of 2009, similar to the second quarter, due in part to an improvement in broadband subscriber additions. The company noted that it typically experiences a sequential decline from the second quarter to the third quarter due to seasonality. The additions included broadband internet and telephony additions of 130,000 and 124,000 RGUs, respectively, and video losses of 55,000 RGUs.
Geographically, the company's operations in Japan, Europe, the Americas and Australia contributed 85,000, 66,000, 38,000 and 10,000 organic additions, respectively.
The company's base of 26.8 million RGUs consists of 15.2 million video, 6.5 million broadband internet and 5.1 million telephony subscribers at September 30, 2009.
For the first three quarters of the fiscal, net loss attributable to stockholders was $512.1 million or $1.89 per share, compared to $36.3 million or $0.11 per share in the prior year. Revenue rose to $8.040 billion from $7.942 billion.
Looking ahead, the company expects full-year rebased OCF growth to be at the high end of its guidance range of 5% - 7%, due in part to increased marketing and subscriber acquisition costs in the fourth quarter, which is its busiest selling season.
LBTYA closed Wednesday's regular trade at $21.01, up $0.20 or 0.96%, on 1.63 million shares. For the past year, the stock traded in the range of $9.11-$25.27.
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