Liberty Latin America Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 7, 2024

There are 10 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by.

Operator

Today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Danilo Fernandez, Senior Director of Corporate Business, C&W Panama.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and welcome to Libertad Latin America 2nd Quarter 2024 Investor Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. Today's formal presentation materials can be found under the Investor Relations section of Libertad Latin America's website at www.nla.com. Following today's formal presentation, instructions will be given for a question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

Speaker 1

Today's remarks may include forward looking statements, including the company's expectations with respect to its outlook and future growth prospects and other information and statements that are not historical facts. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed at the Liberty Latin America's most recently filled annual report on Form 10 ks and quarterly report on Form 10 Q, along with the associated press release. Liberty Latin America disclaims any obligation to update any forward looking statement or information to reflect any change in its expectations or in the conditions on which any such statement or information is based. In addition, on this call, we will refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measures, which can be found in the appendices to this presentation, which is accessible under the Investors section of our website.

Speaker 1

I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Balanaire.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Danilo, and welcome everyone to Liberty Latin America's 2nd quarter and first half results presentation. I'll begin with our group highlights and an overview of our operating results by reporting segment. Chris Noyes, our CFO, will then follow with a review of the company's financial performance. After that, we will get straight to your questions. As always, I'm joined by my executives team from across the region, and I will invite them to contribute as needed during the Q and A following our prepared remarks.

Speaker 2

As a point of housekeeping, we will both be working from slides, which you can find on our website at www.lla.com. Starting on Slide 4 and our highlights. We continue to grow our high speed broadband and postpaid mobile basis in the first half, adding 62,000 subscribers in total across the group. This was close to 200,000 additions excluding Puerto Rico where we experienced specific challenges related to the completion of mobile subscriber migration and the sunset of the ECF program, which I'll cover later in the presentation. We reported adjusted OIBDA of $763,000,000 in the first half.

Speaker 2

This included double digit rebase growth in Panama and Costa Rica, in addition to high single digit growth in Cable and Wireless Caribbean. We expect these businesses to continue their momentum in the second half and growth for the overall group to improve as we drive better results in our Puerto Rico operations. We have been aggressive with our buyback activity this year, including the redemption of our convertible notes in July. We have now repurchased over $300,000,000 of our equity and converts, which is equivalent to the total capital allocated during 2023. Finally, we continue to look at inorganic ways in which to drive additional stakeholder value and we are excited to announce our combination with Millicom in Costa Rica.

Speaker 2

This will improve the market structure, drive synergies and importantly allow us to invest in fiber and 5 gs, delivering even better services for the Costa Rican people. Turning to Slide 5. I'll begin our operating review with Cable and Wireless Caribbean. On the left of the slide, we present our Internet and Mobile postpaid additions, where over the past 12 months, we've added 80,000 subscribers in total. Q2 saw flat broadband subscriber performance, as our price increases resulted in higher churn during the quarter, which was in line with our expectations.

Speaker 2

Importantly, we continue to deliver year over year revenue growth and we expect underlying improvements in the second half, although anticipating some one time impacts resulting from Hurricane Beryl, primarily in Jamaica. Postpaid mobile ads remain robust, driven by another solid quarter in Jamaica, where we've now added subscribers for 16 consecutive quarters. Moving to the center of the slide, we generated 4% revenue growth in the first half of this year, as our consumer momentum was bolstered by strong B2B performance through the award of some notable projects. Lastly, for Cable and Wireless, I want to provide an update following Hurricane Bharat, which impacted our operations in Jamaica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines in early July.

Speaker 2

Most importantly, we were very grateful that our colleagues were saved through the storm. These territories did however suffered some infrastructure damage and we have had teams working around the clock to get our services back up and running. We are pleased to confirm that on average across our impacted markets over 90% of our fixed and mobile network coverage is online and this number continues to grow. As ever, in these situations, we are dependent on the power company's reinstating networks so that we can deliver services, and this is an ongoing process. Chris will discuss in more detail, but our expected operational and financial impacts are manageable and we expect our parametric program will cover the cash flow impact.

Speaker 2

C and W Caribbean remains on a great trajectory and we are working with our communities to recover as soon as possible. Moving to Slide 6 and our C and W Panama segment. Starting on the left of the slide, we delivered another solid quarter of internet subscriber additions and robust revenue growth. Our go to market strategy is now delivering consistent results across our high speed network and we expect this to continue through the rest of the year. In mobile, we reported an exceptional quarter, adding a record number of over 50,000 postpaid subscribers as we successfully won a significant number of customers who came into the market following DG Cell's exit earlier this year, As well as fixed network investments, we are also investing in mobile with successful 5 gs trials during the May elections showing technology leadership in the market.

Speaker 2

Moving to the center of the slide, we drove 6% top line growth in the first half, with contributions coming from all of our product areas. Overall, we are creating an exciting platform in Panama and are well positioned to continue the momentum we have built during the first half of the year. Turning to Slide 7 and Liberty Puerto Rico. Starting on the left of the slide, we reported a stable quarter of Internet subscriber adds. Fixed revenue was flat year over year as growth in our RGU base over the past 12 months was offset by reduced ARPU following retention offers, including for our ACP base, who as we indicated on the Q1 call have mostly stayed with us.

Speaker 2

In mobile, our postpaid subscriber performance was impacted by certain factors. Following completion of the migration from AT and T in April, we experienced some disruption across our platforms, which led to increased churn in Q2. We also saw the final quarterly impact of ECF funding being removed for schools in Puerto Rico. This drove a total of 39,000 subscriber losses in Q2 and 74,000 of losses over the past year. As mentioned on the last quarter's call, ARPU for these customers is less than half our average across the base.

Speaker 2

We expect our operating performance to improve and saw some green shoots in our prepaid segment during the Q2 as we added over 2,000 subscribers, which was only our 2nd positive quarter since we acquired the AT and T operation in 2020. In the center of the slide, we show the revenue mix by product in Puerto Rico and the first half year over year decline of 11%. Chris will cover the financial puts and takes in greater detail within his section. I will provide more color on our Puerto Rico story in the next slide, but want to be very clear that our long term message remains consistent. We had expected greater sequential adjusted EBITDA expansion in the Q2.

Speaker 2

However, some unanticipated factors affected our performance and this has led to a small shift in our target timeline to achieve certain These synergies, operating cost improvements and These synergies, operating cost improvements and top line sequential growth with FMC should drive adjusted OIBDA to more than $45,000,000 per month in the second half, however, now towards the end of the year, still setting us up for significant expansion in adjusted OIBDA for 2025. Moving to Slide 8, we wanted to provide an overview of execution today, challenges we faced and our next steps to drive significantly improved results in Puerto Rico. Starting with the commercial side of the business. In terms of execution, we have consistently reported solid subscriber additions across our fixed operations over many years. Fixed revenue represents 40% of our Puerto Rico total and so this remains a strong foundation for the business.

Speaker 2

In mobile, we were able to maintain a stable postpaid base until migration began. This is a market structure where we can stabilize and grow share. The prepaid performance I mentioned on the prior slide is just the beginning. In terms of challenges, during and following the migration, we have seen subscriber losses across our postpaid and prepaid basis, albeit some Q2 improvements in prepaid, which was the 1st segment to be migrated. We were also impacted by the ECF program Sunset, which is now completed.

Speaker 2

Importantly, we now have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our full service products to drive FMC penetration from current levels of around 25 In mobile, we have a market share around 20% and there is clearly significant room to grow as we ramp up our commercial efforts. The acquisition of DISHUS Boost subscribers and spectrum, which we expect closing in Q3 is an exciting addition and catalyst here. Moving to operational aspects, experienced challenges, in particular related to mapping and billing as we tried to convert an extensive number of legacy AT and T plans with associate quoting to our new platform. We are now to the worst of the disruption and a stabilizing platform so that our commercial colleagues can start driving top line growth. Finally, the financial areas.

Speaker 2

From an execution perspective, we have successfully managed to sustain and grow our fixed revenue for a number of years. We have also mostly exited the TSA and expect minimal costs in the second half. Challenges have centered around certain migration related costs, which are now mostly behind us. As mentioned, the unanticipated factor in Q2 was a decision with our customer relationship in mind to write off $12,000,000 of bad debt. Looking forward, we expect to drive top line growth through our commercial initiatives, cost efficiencies from our headcount reduction and other initiatives and drive synergies.

Speaker 2

To reiterate, we remain very confident of our longer term plans and excited by the opportunity to return to growth in Puerto Rico. Turning to Slide 9 and Liberty Costa Rica, starting on the left of the slide. We delivered a solid fixed subscriber performance with net adds similar to the Q1. We've referenced the challenging competitive backdrop in Costa Rica's fixed market in previous calls. This was one of the drivers for the transaction with Millicom that we have announced.

Speaker 2

I'll provide more color on that deal in a later slide, but we think it will be great for all stakeholders, particularly our customers. In mobile, we reported another strong quarter with growth concentrated in the higher value postpaid segments where net adds were over 60% higher compared to the prior year quarter. Following successful trials, we were first to market with a commercial 5 gs offering in July, further reinforcing our technology and service leadership in the market. Moving to the center of the slide, we reported healthy rebased revenue growth of 6% in the first half led by mobile. Next to Slide 10 and our final segment, Liberty Networks.

Speaker 2

On the left side of the slide,

Speaker 3

we

Speaker 2

present revenue for current and prior year first half. Enterprise continues to be our fastest area of growth, rising by 11% on a rebased basis year over year. This performance was driven by connectivity growth and higher value added services, penetration as customers migrate their mission critical operations on our cloud infrastructure. To help drive this growth, we host events such as our Annual Data Center and Cybersecurity Summit. These are great forums for our teams to showcase our capabilities to customers, whilst at the same time getting valuable insights into their needs.

Speaker 2

Despite facing a year over year decline in IRU non cash revenues, our wholesale business continues to demonstrate resilience. Importantly, we are building a strong foundation of monthly recurring revenues, which bodes well for our future prospects. In the center of the slide, we present our revenue split and highlight the strong financial profile of the business. Liberty Networks has an adjusted OIBDA margin above 50% and given its relatively low capital intensity and operating free cash flow drops over 40%. Finally, to Slide 11 and an update on inorganic moves we are making to drive additional value.

Speaker 2

Firstly, taking the left of the slide and last week's announced agreement to combine our operations with TIGO in Costa Rica. This transaction will create significant value. In particular, it will improve the fixed market structure, create cost synergies through enhanced scale, bring cross sell opportunities for FMC across the TIGO customer base, create network synergies given significant footprint overlap, and enable FTTH investment synergies and compete with the existing 3 FTTH networks in the country. Secondly, an update regarding the acquisition of Spectrum and subscribers from DISH, which we announced last November. We received HSR clearance and anticipate the transaction receiving FCC clearance in Q3.

Speaker 2

The purchase consideration will be spread across 4 annual payments from the date of closing, with $99,000,000 due at completion. Our commitment to Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands is reflected in this deal, where we will acquire a combination of over 100 Megahertz of spectrum and over 110,000 Boost subscribers. Upon completion, this transaction will provide us with valuable spectrum that would allow us to add more capacity, increase speeds and further strengthen our 5 gs mobile network, as well as increase our scale in the prepaid market.

Speaker 2

With that, I'll pass you over to Chris Noyes, our Chief Financial Officer, who will take you through our financial performance before we move on to your questions. Chris?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Balan. I'll now take you through our financial results in greater detail, starting with our group revenue and adjusted OIBDA performance on Slide 13. Sequentially, reported revenue grew by 2% to $1,100,000,000 and adjusted OIBDA was 4% higher at $389,000,000 in the 2nd quarter. Revenue progression in the quarter reflects the positive financial results of the operational actions Balan highlighted. OIBDA growth was bolstered by operational leverage with our margin improving by 75 basis points to 34.8%.

Speaker 3

Year over year revenue was 1% lower on a rebased basis and adjusted OIBDA declined by 12%. Revenue declined slightly as positive momentum in C&W Panama, C&W Caribbean and Costa Rica was more than offset by declines in Puerto Rico and Liberty Networks. With respect to adjusted OIBDA, C and W Panama was our best performing segment, posting double digit rebased growth and C&W Caribbean delivered high single digit rebased growth. Similar to revenue, the growth in these segments was more than offset by significant declines in Liberty Puerto Rico and Liberty both of which we will discuss in subsequent slides. Moving to Slide 14 and our P and E additions and adjusted FCF results for Q2.

Speaker 3

On the left, we incurred P and E additions of $180,000,000 in Q2 or 16% of revenue. This compares to $192,000,000 or 17 percent of revenue last year Q2. During Q2, we built and or upgraded nearly 100,000 homes and launched initial 5 gs service in Costa Rica and Cayman. On the right, we posted adjusted FCF before partner distributions of negative $7,000,000 Partner distributions in Bahamas of $11,000,000 which brought our adjusted FCF to negative $18,000,000 for Q2. This result compares to adjusted FCF of $31,000,000 for Q2 2023.

Speaker 3

The primary driver of the year over year change was principally related to our lower adjusted OIBDA. Slide 15 recaps our segment results. Starting with C&W Caribbean, we reported $368,000,000 of revenue in Q2, reflecting 4% rebased growth. Specifically, we achieved another quarter of growth in all three business categories, posting 2% in fixed, 5% in mobile and 5% in B2B on a rebased basis. The main drivers of higher residential fixed to mobile revenue were higher ARPUs driven by price increases across a number of markets and year over year subscriber growth in broadband and postpaid.

Speaker 3

The positive B2B performance was driven by project related revenue, particularly in the Bahamas. We posted adjusted OIBDA of $157,000,000 representing 8% rebase growth fueled by the aforementioned revenue growth and discipline on direct and indirect costs. As a result of our operating leverage, our adjusted OIBDA margin improved by over 150 basis points year over year to 43%. As Valen mentioned, Hurricane Beryl impacted our Jamaica, Grenada and St. Vincent operations in early July.

Speaker 3

Damaged or destroyed network residences and businesses and loss of power has impacted certain of our customers in these markets. We currently expect to be impacted in revenue and adjusted OIBDA by $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 in H2 and will incur an additional $10,000,000 to 20,000,000 to repair, replace and or strengthen our infrastructure. Good progress is being made on our recovery efforts. Next, moving to Cable and Wireless Panama. CWP generated $197,000,000 of revenue, reflecting 9% rebased revenue growth.

Speaker 3

As in the Caribbean, we recorded rebased top line growth across all business lines with 4% in fixed, 4% in mobile and 17% in B2B. Growth was mainly fueled by increased sales activity in broadband, increases in prepaid recharge activity and B2B project wins. We posted $65,000,000 of adjusted OIBDA in Q2, representing 10% rebased year on year growth with performance driven by revenue growth. Turning to Liberty Networks. We generated $119,000,000 in revenue $63,000,000 in adjusted OIBDA, resulting in rebased declines of 1% 13% respectively.

Speaker 3

Wholesale revenue declined due to a roughly 6 $1,000,000 decrease in non cash IRU amortization and accelerations year over year, which was partially offset by double digit growth in enterprise driven by growth in decline in adjusted OIBDA was due to the aforementioned lower IRU revenue and a bad debt adjustment for 2 large customers of roughly $5,000,000 2nd from the right, Liberty Puerto Rico. Q2 revenue was $309,000,000 reflecting a 12% rebase decline year over year. Residential fixed revenue was down 1% on the back of broadband volume gains in the past 12 months, which were more than offset by lower ARPU, primarily due to retention discounts in part related to ACP retention activity. Mobile, however, declined by 21% on a rebased basis, driven by mobile subscriber losses in connection to the migration and by a $9,000,000 reduction in equipment sales due in part to the migration impacting commercial activities. B2B revenue declined 6% on a rebased basis, driven by the ECF sunset, which led to a reduction of 39,000 subscribers in the quarter and 74,000 in the last 12 months.

Speaker 3

Adjusted OIBDA decreased substantially year over year as we reported $71,000,000 which reflected a rebased decline of 48% as compared to Q2 2023. The negative year on year performance was impacted by lower revenues discussed above and higher OpEx related to the migration integration activities and impacts, partly offset by lower direct costs, including TSA and roaming. On a sequential basis, adjusted OIBDA improved by 3% as revenue declines were more than offset by lower direct and indirect costs. I'll discuss Puerto Rico's Q2 results more in the next slide. Concluding with Costa Rica on the far right, we delivered Q2 revenue of $147,000,000 and adjusted OIBDA of $53,000,000 reflecting 4% rebased revenue growth and rebased adjusted OIBDA growth of 1%.

Speaker 3

All three business lines contributed to the positive top line performance with the main driver of organic growth being mobile revenue, which was 8% higher year over year on a rebased basis. Sequentially, our growth was impacted by fixed ARPU pressure and lower mobile equipment sales. Adjusted OIBDA only expanded modestly year over year as a result of incremental costs related to our strong commercial activity, including the net impact of equipment SIN. Moving to Slide 16, I will present a detailed review of our financial performance in Puerto Rico. Revenue for Q2 was $309,000,000 representing a sequential decline of $18,000,000 from the $327,000,000 reported in Q1.

Speaker 3

The decline is due to residential mobile subscriber losses and the loss of ECF subs previously mentioned. In H2, we expect to stabilize the mobile subscriber base as we move past the operational issues on our new platforms and then start to gain momentum to the launch of new offers. Our direct costs and OpEx for Q2 of $238,000,000 continues to be impacted by a number of migration related items that we expect will largely drop off during H2. Q2 includes incremental bad debt of $12,000,000 driven by billing and collection issues on our new systems as well as the decision to not pursue collections on historic billings for certain customers that experienced migration issues. We expect that debt to return to a more normalized level by the end of the year.

Speaker 3

We incurred approximately $9,000,000 of TSA costs in Q2, which will drop off significantly in Q3 and will be negligible by the end of the year. And we incurred $3,000,000 of integration OpEx in Q2 as well as inventory impacts associated with the migration of $4,000,000 during the quarter. These costs should largely drop off by year end. Finally, we expect to generate significant additional OpEx savings in H2 from the initiatives that started in Q2 and that will continue for the rest of the year. With all of this in mind, we are still targeting to reach $45,000,000 in monthly adjusted OIBDA at some point in the back half of H2.

Speaker 3

Turning to Slide 17. At the end of Q2 on a consolidated basis, we had $8,100,000,000 of total debt, dollars 600,000,000 of cash and $800,000,000 of availability under our revolving credit lines. We had gross leverage of 5.3 times and net leverage of 4.9 times, a modest increase from Q1. Leverage levels should trend down towards year end as adjusted OIBDA expands. Q2 was an active quarter in terms of equity related activities.

Speaker 3

We repurchased $22,000,000 of stock, increasing our year to date total to $83,000,000 In addition to open market buybacks, we also entered into a derivative cap call arrangement. The highlight of this arrangement is that it provides us with a leverage strategy to repurchase upwards of 6,000,000 shares or 3% of LLA in H2 2025 at attractive prices. Subsequent to quarter end, we purchased and canceled the remaining $140,000,000 of outstanding convertible notes due July 2024. As a result, substantially all of our debt is due in 2027 beyond. Managing risk is a critical component of our treasury function.

Speaker 3

We utilize weather derivatives triggered off of Cat 3 to Cat 5 wind speeds to provide us with recovery to the extent that we experienced significant nat cat hurricane events. Payouts are defined in advance based on established values and wind speed as well as the hurricane path. With respect to Hurricane Beryl, our parametric weather derivative program was triggered twice. And as a result, we expect to receive $44,000,000 of net proceeds into LLA during Q3. We still have a sizable protection for C and W in Puerto Rico for the remaining storm season.

Speaker 3

To wrap up our prepared comments, we are making progress operationally as seen today, but we still have work to do in Puerto Rico in order to return to BAU. LLA did grow revenue and adjusted OIBDA sequentially to Q1, but in Puerto Rico, we are probably 3 months behind of where we thought we would be at this time as delays and challenges in our operational systems hindered us. We have made good progress of late and are on track to see enhanced financial improvement in H2, especially Q4. Outside of Puerto Rico, our businesses in Panama, Costa Rica and Caribbean have performed very well both operationally and financially. A call out to our Panamanian operation as the team capitalized on the exit by the 3rd player, dramatically expanding its mobile subscriber base during the Q2.

Speaker 3

We knew that 2024 was a tale of 2 halves and then H2 would be the lion's share of our financial performance. That remains true to this day. We are focused on returning Puerto Rico to growth, driving fixed and mobile volumes across LA, doubling down on cost takeouts across the group and recovering from Hurricane Beryl. Within the Caribbean, Hurricane Beryl will impact our Q3 results, but it's temporary. In the last month, we have been quick to recover.

Speaker 3

We anticipate the cash impact will be covered by the payout under our parametric program, and we are optimistic that we'll come out stronger in the affected markets in terms of network quality and ultimately market share. In terms of capital allocation and M and A, we have been busy this year. Significant equity repurchases equating to 12,000,000 shares or about 6% of LLA at what we think are really attractive levels and also entered into a derivative transaction for another 6,000,000 shares. In July, we also repaid the remaining amount due under our convertible bond. With respect to M and A, we announced the acquisition of TIGO6 business in Costa Rica in July and we are in the home stretch of closing on the DISH Boost and Spectrum transaction for Puerto Rico.

Speaker 3

Both of these transactions should improve our ability to serve our customers and drive incremental growth and value. With that, operator, please open it up for questions.

Operator

Thank you. The question and answer session will be conducted electronically. Our first question today is from the line of Itau Tamita of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Hello, good morning all and thank you very much for taking our questions. We have 2 from our side. The first both of them would be on Puerto Rico. The first one is if you could give us some more color on the retention discounts that you applied to ACP subscribers, mainly if those discounts affected revenues only starting in June, If they were applied to the entire ACP days or to a smaller percentage of it? And if you see risk of potential churn or bad debt issues going into Q3, particularly on non discounted subscribers, if there are any?

Speaker 4

The second question from our side would be also on Puerto Rico. If you could go into a bit more detail on the drivers for the further EBITDA improvement in Puerto Rico that you expect in the second half of the year. Basically, how much of that improvement will depend on cost cuts versus expected revenue improvements in there? Thank you very much.

Speaker 5

Good morning, and thank you for your question. And I'll ask Eduardo to also jump in here. On the ACT, we have roughly about 85,000 subscribers in fixed and about 3,000 mobile. So very little exposure in mobile. On the fixed, we've been able to retain the bulk of it more than 90 some percent.

Speaker 5

I think the effective discount and

Speaker 2

Eduardo, you

Speaker 5

can jump in here.

Speaker 2

I think

Speaker 5

it was about $14 was the effective discount that we provided. Let me put it a different way. The subsidy was about $30 and our effective subsidy was about $14 So you're close to $14 $15 $15 on the effective discount. But we've been able to retain the bulk of our customers on ACP. Now the there's another group of customers, and this particularly hits mobile, and it's another program called ETF, where we actually have kind of like a little dongle for our customers.

Speaker 5

It's a very low ARPU on that. And that was what really impacted our operating numbers, that disconnect on the ETF side. And you see that manifest itself in the postpaid numbers. On the EBITDA side, we're actually quite bullish on our outlook when we guided to the $45,000,000 towards the end of the year on a monthly basis for EBITDA. There's a number of drivers around that, specifically, of course, the TSA dropouts.

Speaker 5

We have a whole bunch of one off costs that don't recur again. And then it's a couple of additional drivers of recovery here. One of it is cost takeout. And as you as we probably I don't know if you recall, we said that we were taking out about 300 headcount in Puerto Rico, which we've effectively completed. And in addition to that, there's a number of line items that we've been looking at both on the cost of goods sold and the actual OpEx line that we feel that we are very well on our way to take those costs out.

Speaker 5

So those would add into our monthly OIBDA. And then finally, we will be launching our new campaigns. And after the campaign launch, it's going to drive additional gross adds. It will have a slight impact on our OpEx because of customer acquisition, but it will drive revenue and top line and bottom line as well into the Q4, which is kind of why we've kind of pushed $45,000,000 towards the end of the year because there is some slight additional costs in customer acquisition as well. But that's how the ladder builds back into the $45,000,000 Eduardo, you want to give a little bit more color on the ACP and maybe if you have if you want to share thoughts on OIBDA?

Speaker 6

Of course, of course. Thank you and good morning. Thank you for your question. We believe that the results on ACP at the end of the program were quite successful. We were able to retain over 92% of the base.

Speaker 6

And when we think about the impact overall of that base, the ARPU reduction overall is only about 4%. There are some discounts that we did mostly on retention as Valent mentioned on some customers that were probably in more, let me call it dire circumstances to continue with the service. But in general, the impact on the ARPU is also coming from customers downgrading their plans given the fact that the subsidy finished. And so you have both combinations, if you will, some retention offers with discounts and customers downgrading their services to be able to meet their needs. But overall, I would say very successful.

Speaker 6

And in the case of mobile, a very small number and we were able to retain most of those customers as well. So that would be on ACP. In terms of EBITDA improvements, I mean, certainly we're looking to extract all the opportunities that the integration of both our mobile operations and fixed operations can give us to become really a convergent company. And the teams are working extremely hard. I think that in terms of sales, the last couple of months have shown very, very good traction, the the improvements now that we control our systems and therefore are able to build our offers and certainly leverage our base both on the fixed and mobile sides to create cross selling options.

Speaker 6

I hope that gives you a better color.

Operator

Our next question today is from the line of Michael Rollins of Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Speaker 7

Thanks and good morning. Just following up on Puerto Rico. So if you take the expectation to get to a monthly run rate of $45,000,000 does that put the 2025 EBITDA contribution for Puerto Rico at roughly 540,000,000 dollars And if not, what would be the variances? Thanks.

Speaker 5

Sure. Well, I wouldn't straight line the number. Here's how I'd look at it. And the big part of our business is always about opening balances. And it's opening balances at monthly level, at the quarterly level.

Speaker 5

And certainly, as we build our 25 budget, it would be the opening balance in December going into January. Our goal is to get to the $45,000,000 by the end of this year, in the last couple of months. And then we'll have, going into $25,000,000 an opening balance of both subscribers and fixed and postpaid as well as where our B2B trajectory. I expect that to not be 45 every month for the year 2025. So you'll start seeing growth coming in.

Speaker 5

And as the year progresses, since we add net adds, the Q1 net adds will certainly drive the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter and then the 2nd quarter net adds 3rd and 4th. So I suspect by the end of 2025, just shoot me if we're still at $45,000,000 It's going to be a better number. So and then you can just figure out how you want to model the EBITDA for 25

Speaker 7

And as you look at the broader portfolio, does 2025 mark the year where you would expect rebased revenue growth for the entirety of the portfolio to be positive for the year? Or are there still just significant variability between markets and products where it's just harder to assess when you get to that sustainable rebates revenue growth level? Thanks. Okay.

Speaker 5

There will be revenue growth positive in 2025. That's a given. And let me explain why I feel so confident of it. I'll start with that. We have essentially 5 segments here.

Speaker 5

Our Cable and Wireless Caribbean business, we've spent a lot of years rebuilding that platform, building not only a great team supporting that platform but also an infrastructure and a product base. So for the most part, we've eliminated most of all our twisted pair copper by 25 actually by the Q2. 25 there will be no more copper, but we're no longer relying on that. So you don't have any headwinds there on copper. It's a duopoly market, and we continue to grow both on fixed, postpaid mobile as well.

Speaker 5

And we think for sure between all of the competitors in that market, whoever we are facing, I think for sure, that's going to be drivers for price increases in our products next year. So you've got a great network, great products and very high probabilities of price increases. Then you move to our Panama business. We've also rebuilt that business quite a bit, and you see the tremendous growth this year. And with our management team and our new management team in Panama very focused not only in the top line growth but the efficiency of the business, you'll see top line growth and expansion in the OSCF margin in that business.

Speaker 5

And that's clear as Dave. We are investing in the network. Almost all of it's now fiber and very new HFC. We are 5 gs in that network. It's one of our best mobile networks as well.

Speaker 5

And clearly, we will be back in the front driver seat. We already the leader in mobile, and we're doing a very good job as an attacker on the fixed side. And our general manager there, together with the team, has been really focused not only on the top line but on as well on the operations and the platform. Then you look at Costa Rica. With our current trend the deal that we just announced, we're going to bring market consolidation.

Speaker 5

But even premarket consolidation, we are investing also have invested in our mobile networks and our fixed networks. We are building fiber rapidly there. And our HSE network there is very strong. So you'll see us doing really well. We are already today doing well in mobile and fixed.

Speaker 5

And our general manager there and the leadership team are also focused on the platform. Then you look at our Liberty Networks, our Subsea business. Our Subsea business has been going through a number of changes. And our general manager then, together with the new leadership team, has been very focused on getting us more from an NRR, nonrecurring revenue model to an MRR, a monthly recurring revenue model. So you're seeing the subscription model grow.

Speaker 5

And what you see in your numbers, as we reported in the second quarter is just some of the washing out of some of the old IRUs where we collected the cash. It's just an accounting treatment on both revenue and OCF. It always gets reversed back at the working capital level. So we have been cleaning that up, and you'll see the year over year starting next year to be not dependent on IRUs, and it's mostly going to be driven on monthly recurring revenue, real growth. And as we reported today, the enterprise business, double digit growth, and that's all mostly all MRRs.

Speaker 5

And our subsea network, as we announced the last time as well, we're building new routes, and we're really excited about that platform. So now I've got I've covered you 4 platforms that we are really bullish on. And then let's go back to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico 2024, the first half is all about doing the migrations and cleaning up the after effects of the migrations. The Q3 and the Q4 Q3 is all about rebuilding the story, relaunching the brand, getting our new propositions on our new network and our new IT systems.

Speaker 5

And then you start harvesting the beginnings of it in the Q4. And then in 2025, you're after the race is there. We're going to put up some big numbers in Puerto Rico. Of course, year over year, it's going to be big numbers given the challenges this year. But it is also going to be good numbers in 2025.

Speaker 5

We've got a great management team there, is really committed. So in all of our markets, we've invested in the networks, in the systems and in the people. And I think we've got a great platform. And if it weren't for us, the migration that we were doing this year in Puerto Rico, you can clearly see we'd be putting up double digit growth this year. I mean this is a great platform.

Speaker 5

So all we are seeing right now is just a bump in the first half of the year and the 3rd quarter is rebuilding and then 4th quarter is selling. And then you build into that momentum into 2025. Hopefully, that was helpful, Michael.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Our

Operator

next question today is from the line of Matthew Harrigan of Benchmark Company. Please go ahead now. Your line is open.

Speaker 8

Thank you. I was going to go for Puerto Rico 540 question as well. But beyond that, a fair amount of Level 4 data center activity, I think particularly in PureCell and some hyperscalers being pretty active in particular the Caribbean, I think more than Central America. Is there a tailwind there for your networks business off that? And then secondly, very broadly, clearly you don't have any direct exposure to Venezuela.

Speaker 8

But is there anything on the political or regulatory side that deposit creates opportunities across your markets and that's fairly open ended? Thanks and congratulations on the results.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Matt. And I'll ask Ray Collins to also jump in here in a bit on the data center, Ray. On the data center business, we have a number of data centers. Actually, we do have a data center in Curacao, which we support both internally and external customers as well. It's a great island.

Speaker 5

It's an island that's really rarely, very, very rarely in touch with you, impacted by hurricanes. It's a great location for us to build our data center. And we've been building also microdata centers for specific customers in a number of markets. But I think as we look at the data center business, the 3 areas that could be real good opportunities for us is Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico. And Mexico, as you know, we are building fiber going into the Cancun area and I always can't say Quintero in Mexico where we the data center business has been growing.

Speaker 5

So we are building connectivity into that. And then of course, you look at Panama and Costa Rica, they're both countries where the CHIPS Act has flowed money, and you can see Intel building plants in Costa Rica. So we are also focused very hyper focused on that. And so on the data center business, it's kind of how we're looking at, but you really have to have the contracts with the large hyperscalers for it to really for you to really allocate significant amount of capital in the space. And then on Venezuela, we follow every political change and challenge in our region, and we'll see how that plays out.

Speaker 5

And we have absolutely no plans right now to go into Venezuela even though we have a good business into Venezuela with our subsea. We have really good customers there. They pay us in U. S. Dollars, and we are very appreciative of that.

Speaker 5

And we like those businesses. If the world changes in the future, of course, Venezuela would be a great market at some point in the future once their political turmoil changes. The other market, of course, is Argentina as well. Once political turmoil changes there, it could be a really good market. These are all dislocated markets.

Speaker 5

And clearly, Ray Collins from our M and A team, Chris Noyes, John Winter and myself, we look closely at all these markets. And when the time is right, we'll be very opportunistic. But right now, I don't see it. Ray? Ray?

Speaker 9

Yes. Just to add on the data center business. Thanks, Balan. We also provide data center to data center connectivity in our B2B business and in our network business. And actually, one of the drivers of the new system, which we announced, is really connecting some of the hyperscale data centers that we see.

Speaker 9

The build that you see in Queretaro in Mexico where we're connecting from Veracruz, back up to a new connectivity that we'll put into the Apalache Coast in Florida, connecting into Virginia and Georgia and then down to Columbia. So the new network that we've announced is really all about serving that hyperscale data center traffic. As Balan said, we don't have current plans to build data center cells for hyperscalers, but we have we see a strong tailwind from enabling and connecting the various deployments that we see in the region.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Ray.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question today is from the line of Gabriel Vasdelima of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Just wanted to get a bit more color on the the possible regions impacted by the hurricane season this time around. Like any kind of color you can provide to us in terms of what kind of impacts we should expect? And how this could impact your businesses in Jamaica and the regions that were already impacted?

Speaker 5

Okay. Well, the hurricane barrel that went through us impacted 3 of our operations: Grenada, St. Vincent and Jamaica. And in many cases, the biggest driver of our challenges have been power outages, primarily if you look especially in Jamaica, where our customers went offline not because the network went down but because of power. We have significant amount of towers in Jamaica, which only like 7 towers got damaged.

Speaker 5

And by the way, we did a deal with, as you recall from the last quarter with PTI. And PTI is responsible for rebuilding those towers. And so from a mobile tower standpoint, we're good. From a fixed network standpoint, for the most part, our network withstood it. We have some network that we have to rebuild.

Speaker 5

And we're going to rebuild our backbone. It's about 170 kilometers of our backbone. We're going to underground the whole backbone. And that's built into our budget as well. Now in 1 or 2 smaller islands, Kariku, Union Islands of St.

Speaker 5

Vincent and Grenada, it was damaged significantly. And we've gone back in there, rebuilt the mobile. And on the fixed side, we are using an alternative technology with fixed wireless access to get customers back up quickly and as well cost efficiently. So when you look at this year's hurricane season, we got hit pretty early, but the team is resilient. We've rebuilt what we needed to rebuild.

Speaker 5

Some of the cost impact that Chris alluded to was really around some credits that we will be giving back to our customers because they didn't have our network service. And we'll give them some credits back if they didn't have the service. All in all, we feel really good. And by the way, our team did a tremendous job on the insurance. This parametric insurance clearly delivered.

Speaker 5

And as Chris pointed out, we've closed out with our brokers and the insurance consortium. And we will be paid for the damage. And it should relatively have very little financial impact to us with this hurricane.

Operator

Thank you. And this will conclude today's question and answer session. I'd like to hand back to Belan there for any additional or closing remarks.

Speaker 5

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everybody, for joining us this morning. As you can see, our business is moving, and we've got momentum behind us in all of our businesses. And I would say the same in Puerto Rico. And I hope to share with you in the Q3 some more positive data out of Puerto Rico. As Eduardo pointed out and Chris pointed out, we're seeing green shoots already.

Speaker 5

A prepaid business is growing there, and that was the first group of customers we migrated. And already, a lot of the systems, etcetera, have started to get better. And as we look even at our customer sentiment, for all the new customers we've vetted on, the what we call NPS, Net Promoter Score, so for customers, it's been extremely positive. It's actually one of the best in our whole company. And then for our existing customers, it's in 2 buckets, the ones that we migrated successfully and cleanly, and that's 80% of our customers, they are feeling good.

Speaker 5

The 20% of customers that we had challenges in billing, of course, we need to rectify that, and we will. And you'll see some of that results in the 3rd Q4 of this year. I remain very bullish about our business, and I thank you so much for your support.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Liberty Latin America's Q2 2024 Investor Call. As a reminder, a replay of the call will be available in the Investor Relations section of Liberty Latin America's website at www.lla.com. There you can also find a copy of today's presentation materials.

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Earnings Conference Call
Liberty Latin America Q2 2024
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