Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.
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| Statement |
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| We will get through the migration and the team is poised to launch strong commercial plans in the second half |
| Additionally, we remain focused on volume growth and improving our pricing effectiveness through utilization of AI tools and capabilities, which should underpin our top line expansion in 2024 |
| This represents an overall increase of 5% in our base and is evidence of the volume growth potential in our regions we have previously discussed |
| Broadband performance was particularly robust, with growth across our reporting segments |
| As had been the case all year, our adjusted OIBDA performance was helped by value capture from the 2022 Claro acquisition, which should further act as a tailwind into 2024 |
| This is our best rebased growth performance since 2019 and was driven by double-digit growth in C&W Caribbean, Panama, and Costa Rica |
| Revenue expanded by 2%, while adjusted OIBDA increased by 17% year-over-year |
| The business continued its strong performance into Q4, delivering $206 million of revenue and $67 million of adjusted OIBDA, the highest totals of the year |
| As a result of our cost improvement, we drove our adjusted OIBDA margin to nearly 44% in Q4 and 42% for the full year |
| We generated Q4 revenue of $149 million and $58 million of adjusted OIBDA, reflecting strong rebased revenue growth of 10% and an LOA segment-leading 36% rebased adjusted OIBDA growth |
| Starting on the left of the slide, we continued our broadband momentum in 2023, adding 29,000 subscribers which was 12% higher year-over-year |
| Our FMC strategy continues to drive performance in these two product lines, growing volumes and improving our churn levels |
| Year-over-year revenue performance was driven by B2B and residential mobile revenue, helped in large part by over 85,000 postpaid additions during the year |
| Overall, 2023 was a good operational year for C&W Caribbean and, as Chris will come on to, this helped drive strong double-digit adjusted OIBDA growth |
| Adjusted OIBDA expanded significantly in Q4 to $116 million for 16% rebased growth |
| Specifically, we achieved rebased residential, mobile and fixed revenue growth of 5% and 3%, respectively, over the prior-year quarter, helped in large part by 70,000, postpaid and 27,000 broadband additions since the beginning of 2023 |
| For both reported revenue and adjusted OIBDA, our Q4 results showed sequential improvement to Q3 in absolute terms |
| So, I'd concur that we're very bullish on the future growth of this business |
| I'm actually very bullish and excited about this business unit |
| We achieved our 2023 adjusted OIBDA guidance and a 37.7% margin, which improved over 100 basis points as compared to 2022 |
| B2B had a strong year following a number of high profile contract wins and growth in underlying recurring revenue |
| Our fixed performance was supported by higher volume from our successful commercial strategy, including a focus on triple play plants, which now represents over half of our customer base |
| Similar to previous quarters, adjusted OIBDA expanded significantly year-over-year, benefiting from the continued strengthening of the Costa Rican colón to the US dollar as we have certain costs denominated in US dollars |
| We have made good progress with our plans and achieved $70 million of total run rate synergies by the end of 2023, of which approximately $20 million related to cutbacks, providing a tailwind for the business into 2024 |
| Importantly, we are near the finish line in Puerto Rico and are looking forward to inflecting the business in H2 and driving improved financial performance on the back of cross sell activities, more compelling CVPs and cost rationalization, including the elimination of the AT&T TSA expenditures |
| We delivered a robust year of in net additions, growing our subscriber base by 4% |
| Delivering a strong digital platform is vital to meeting our customers where they want to interact with us, improving the customer journey and also an important area where we can drive cost efficiency |
| Our push to drive FMC adoption is aligned with this and we continue to see good traction with our offers |
| Inorganically, we had two key announcements in 2023 – our tower modernization, which unlocks capital and enhances flexibility across the group, and the DISH transaction which upon expected close in 2024 should further strengthen our Puerto Rico business and help us further accelerate our mobile growth |
| Wrapping up, we delivered 2023 growth in terms of adjusted OIBDA and adjusted FCF before partner distributions, which is a solid result when viewed across the industry and the overall business climate across the region |
| Statement |
|---|
| Overall, however, sales have been challenged as we have repurposed our in-store customer facing colleagues to focus on migration activities |
| However, the risks that we had identified at Q3 did come to fruition, including a shortfall in B2G collections in Panama |
| As a reminder, we discontinued a legacy non-core B2B voice transit arrangement in C&W at the start of 2023, which depressed this year's quarterly revenue by $10 million and full year revenue by $40 million, adversely impacting our rebased growth rates by about 1% |
| Turning to mobile, we've had a challenging year, particularly in the fourth quarter as we accelerated our migration efforts |
| In mobile, we reported modest postpaid losses driven by retail disruption during some protests in the quarter |
| Our revenue in Q4 was $354 million and adjusted OIBDA was $104 million, representing rebased declines of 5% and 12%, respectively |
| With respect to the upcoming quarters, our expectation is that Q1 will be the toughest quarter to date from a reporting perspective, given elevated integration migration activities and the continued duplication of certain costs |
| Offsetting in part was a 5% decline in residential mobile, primarily due to a decrease in prepaid RGUs, exacerbated by countrywide protests during the quarter |
| This drove 15,000 subscriber losses in Q4 2023 and we anticipate a further 50,000 headwind in Q1 2024 |
| I know people have been concerned, even apart from competitive issues in Puerto Rico, on the long term macro outlook |
| We reported revenue of $1.16 billion in Q4 and $4.5 billion for 2023, reflecting a 1% rebased decline in Q4 and flat full year rebased growth |
| These factors would reduce our expected reported free cash flow by over $100 million in the year |
| So, economically, it would make sense to repay some of that, which is a negative on the reported free cash flow |
| Turning to Liberty Networks, we reported $114 million in revenue and $62 million in adjusted OIBDA, reflecting rebased declines of 9% and 22%, respectively |
| A key factor in our lower adjusted OIBDA as compared to both periods is the result of significantly higher operating costs attributable to our migration and integration activities |
| Firstly, we have been impacted by the withdrawal of ECF funding for schools in Puerto Rico |
| So as we look at the quarter and compare back to Q4, you do have customers that have incompatible handsets and things like that |
| In the center of the slide, we show the revenue mix in Puerto Rico and our overall 3% top line decline in the year |
| But that's also – we'll be cautiously optimistic because we want to get through the migration – and we want to get through the migration of our customers in Puerto Rico and get that behind us |
| We have stopped selling new consumers on the AT&T IP stack, and this is a major step in our integration |
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