As speculation mounts about a possible sale of some of its assets to Vodafone, how well is Liberty Global performing in the five CEE markets it is present in?
A general look at the company’s Q4 and FY 2017 results, which have just been published, shows that there were 117,000 RGU additions in the region in the fourth quarter. This, says Liberty, was largely in-line with the first three quarters of 2017.
Significantly, Liberty’s revenues in the CEE region, both in Q4 and the full year, where substantially higher than in the corresponding periods in 2016. In the case of Q4, increasing by 15.8%, or 4.6% rebased, to reach $317.1 million. This was put down to growth in the company’s B2B business; solid RGU additions; and a small decline in ARPU per RGU.
Meanwhile, Operating Cash Flow (OCF) grew by 3.4% on a rebased basis in Q4.
To date, Broadband TV News has seen detailed results releases from UPC operations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Looking firstly at Poland, we can see that UPC ended 2017 with 1,023,800 (+19,000 y-o-y) digital TV, 1,139,700 (+34,400 y-o-y) internet and 692,800 (-4,600 y-o-y) telephony subscribers. The number of customers with a Connect Box stood at 375,000, or 260,000 more than a year earlier, while 470,000 (+220,000) received Horizon. All told, the company had 2,982,300 RGUs (+28,000) and 1,435,000 customers as of the end of December.
UPC’s fibre network in Poland reached 3,354,100 households (+202,000), with 553 homes being added to the total each day in 2017.
Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, UPC ended 2017 with a total of 616,300 customers using 1,188,200 services, with the latter figure being 66,700 more than a year earlier. Its TV offer was received by 527,600 (+29,400 y-o-y), internet by 497,500 (+23,600) and telephony by 163,100 (+13,700) customers. Happy Home was sold to 1,188,200 customers (+66,700), while 1,509,400 households (+62,700) were connected to the operator’s Giga-ready broadband network.
At the same time, UPC’s DTH operation ended 2017 with 100,600 subscribers. This figure, according to Liberty Global, was 1,600 fewer than three months earlier.
In Slovakia, where UPC’s operation is now integrated with that in the Czech Republic, UPC Broadband Slovakia ended 2017 with 375,800 RGUs. Happy Home was sold to 375,800 customers, or 6,400 more than in the previous quarter, while 589,400 were connected to its Giga-ready broadband network. The latter figure was 8,300 more than three months earlier and up to 24,6000 more than at the end of 2016.
In Hungary, UPC ended 2017 with 2,064,000 RGUs and 850,000 customers. Its digital TV service had 683,100 subscribers (+19,000 y-o-y), internet 664,600 (+39,800), fixed-line telephony 628,000 (+55,500) and mobile telephony 88,400 (+25,900). All told, the company invested HUF17.6 billion (€56.5 million) in Hungary last year.
Meanwhile, UPC’s DTH operation in Hungary ended 2017 with 265,900 customers, or 4,000 fewer than three months earlier.
Although Broadband TV News has yet to see detailed figures from Liberty’s fifth CEE market Romania, the trends are likely to be similar to those in the other four. Of particular note was that UPC gained 46,300 RGUs in Q4, a figure higher than in all Liberty markets in Europe with the exception of Germany.
Overall, 2017 was a good year for Liberty in CEE. The company continued to invest heavily in infrastructure and gained its rewards through higher revenues and more customers. Although this trend will undoubtedly continue in 2018, it will come against the backdrop of a possible deal with Vodafone and its far-reaching implications.
