Business
Liberty Global Reports Full Year 2019 Results
Exceeded full-year FCF guidance; achieved all other guidance targets Record year for share repurchases with $3.2 billion spent in 2019 2019 operating income
About this update from Liberty Global Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nExceeded full-year FCF guidance; achieved all other guidance targets\n\n\nRecord year for share repurchases with $3.2 billion spent in 2019\n\n\n2019 operating income down 11% YoY for continuing operations\n\n\nFull-year OFCF1 grew 35% YoY fueled by 22% decrease in capital intensity\n\n Denver, Colorado--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nLiberty Global plc today announced its full-year 2019 and Q4 2019 financial results. Our former operations in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, along with our DTH business (collectively, the \"Discontinued Operations\") have been accounted for as discontinued operations. Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this release relates only to our continuing operations.\n\n\nCEO Mike Fries stated, \"2019 was a transformational year on many fronts. In July, we sold our operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone for over $21 billion. We are now geographically concentrated in five attractive Western European markets, while enjoying substantial financial firepower with over $11 billion of total liquidity.\n\n\nTechnologically, we continued to push the boundaries of our fiber-rich HFC networks by accelerating our gigabit broadband rollouts to more European homes and businesses. As a result, millions of our customers currently have access to 1 gigabit download speeds, far surpassing what our competitors are able to offer across the vast majority of our footprint.\n\n\nIn the U.K., our largest market, our focus on fixed-mobile convergence drove record mobile subscription growth in 2019. Last fall, we announced a transformational MVNO deal with Vodafone, which will allow Virgin Media to launch 5G mobile speeds. Combined with our fixed-line gigabit broadband speeds, our cutting-edge FMC bundles place us in an enviable position as we continue to extend the reach of our network with Project Lightning. And while we expect some unavoidable headwinds in 2020, we believe the medium-term outlook in the U.K. remains attractive, especially as we evaluate strategic options for value creation. From a leadership perspective, we recently appointed Severina Pascu as CFO and Deputy CEO of Virgin Media, and expect her depth of operating expertise to make a significant impact over the coming years.\n\n\nIn Switzerland, we are encouraged by the continued success of our turnaro...