Liberty posts Q4 loss

Liberty Global has posted a fourth quarter net loss of $435 million (€328.6 million) attributable to its shareholders, as opposed to net earnings of $57.5 million in the same period in 2010.

For 2011 as a whole, it had a net loss of $772.7 million, again in contrast to net earnings of $388.2 million in the previous year.

However, revenues rose to $2,404.5 million ($2,248.6 million) in Q4 and $9.510.8 million ($8,364.2 million) in the full year.

Following the acquisition of KBW in December, Germany has become Liberty’s single largest market and as of the end of Q4 it had 4,768,600 analogue and 1,983,800 digital cable subscribers.

Within the UPC Broadband division, the figures were also boosted in Poland in Q4 with the addition of Aster to UPC’s portfolio.

Away from Germany and Poland, the Netherlands (36,600), Switzerland (35,500) and Romania (23,100) gained the most digital cable subscribers in the fourth quarter, while in the DTH sector Romania (27,300 additions) was the best performer.

Commenting on the results, Liberty Global president and CEO Mike Fries said that, “The operating momentum we exhibited throughout 2011 continued into the fourth quarter with 380,000 net RGU additions, and 1.2 million for the full year. Our broadband bundles are driving demand across our footprint, which is now over 90% upgraded to offer 100+ Mbps speeds.6 This demand propelled us to a record quarter in both broadband and telephony, as we added approximately 230,000 RGUs of each product in the fourth quarter.”

He continued: “looking ahead, we are optimistic regarding our growth prospects in 2012 given the strong RGU additions that we have seen so far this year.”

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