Liberty Global reported third-quarter revenues up 2.5 percent on an organic basis to USD 3.879 billion, and operating cash flow rose a faster 3.9 percent to USD 1.836 billion. The European cable operator said it was on track to meet its target of around 5 percent rebased OCF growth this year, after a 5 percent increase in the first nine months, according Telecompaper. Organic net additions of revenue-generating units fell 24 percent from a year ago to 204,000. Growth was helped by the company's build-out programme, which added 310,000 premises to the network in Q3 and 800,000 in the year to date. Around half the quarterly network expansion was at Virgin Media in the UK.
The revenue growth was driven largely by the B2B segment, which grew 13 percent to USD 0.5 billion. Residential fixed revenues were flat at USD 2.7 billion, and mobile revenues rose 1 percent to USD 0.4 billion.
Customer growth came in the UK and Germany, offset by losses in Belgium, Switzerland and Austria. Liberty Global lost over 30,000 TV customers in the quarter, while broadband subscriber growth slowed to 132,900 and telephony customers were up by 102,300. Mobile customers rose by 47,800, all postpaid, led by growth in Belgium.
On a reported basis, Liberty Global's results fell year-on-year, to the deconsolidation of its activities in the Netherlands and negative forex effects. Operating profit was down 30 percent to USD 537 million, and the net loss widened to USD 460 million from USD 168 million.
