Liberty Global Announces Q1 2024 Results
CEO Mike Fries stated: “On our extended fourth quarter results call we presented a clear pivot in our strategy which will see us not only focus on maximizing the long-term value of our core FMC assets, but also delivering that value directly to shareholders over time. During Q1 we made significant progress on the initiatives we announced, including our plan to spin-off Sunrise, which is on track for Q4 this year.
Our balance sheet remains in great shape, with $3.9 billion of cash and liquid securities, supported by strong Adjusted FCF generation and the ability to replenish liquidity through asset sales. We recently completed a proactive $2.4 billion VMO2 refinancing where we successfully extended the average life of our total U.K. debt stack with a negligible impact to VMO2’s WACD. We remain committed to shareholder remuneration, having already repurchased ~3% of our shares through April 26th against our target of up to 10% of shares by year-end. Meanwhile our Ventures portfolio, valued at $3.4 billion, represents an attractive platform to support our FMC operations, drive returns, and create significant value over time.
We continue to invest in our fiber-rich, fixed and 5G mobile networks and, while this is driving elevated capital intensity today, it remains critical to underpinning the long-term asset values of our OpCos. Our fiber upgrade projects in the U.K., Belgium and Ireland remain on track, and nexfibre recently announced it had reached the milestone of one million premises built in the U.K., as VMO2 fiber build capacity continues to ramp up. Meanwhile, we’re continuing to invest in digital and AI initiatives to support commercial momentum and efficiencies.
Our overall financial performance in Q1 was in line with expectations, highlighted by the return to strong Adjusted EBITDA growth in the Netherlands and the return to positive broadband net adds in Switzerland. Fixed ARPU trends in the U.K. and Switzerland improved while our businesses in Belgium and the Netherlands each delivered continued fixed ARPU growth. We are on track to meet our full-year 2024 guidance metrics across all OpCos, with price adjustments recently announced in the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium to support our financial targets.”
