Claiming to have shown continued resilience of its business model in its fourth quarter and full year despite challenging macro conditions, Liberty Global has ended a financial year seeing overall revenues decrease, profits fall and subs dip.
For the year ended 31 December, Q4 revenue fell 4.1% year-on-year on a reported basis and increased 0.8% on a rebased basis to $1.842 billion. Loss for the quarter from continuing operations decreased 833.9% YoY to $4.684 billion with Q4 adjusted EBITDA decreasing 13.4% YoY on a reported basis and 4.4% on a rebased basis to $597.3 million. In the quarter Liberty Global saw 6,700 organic customer net losses.
For the full year, Liberty Global generated $ 7.195 billion in revenue, down 30.2% on an annual basis and posted earnings of $1.105 billion, tumbling 91.8% compared with a year ago. Overall organic customer net losses for the year amounted to 44,500.
Yet among these, figures Virgin Media O2 stood out. In its first full year as a merged company, VMO2 saw continued customer growth in both fixed and mobile, resulting in 71,100 post-paid mobile net adds and 22,700 broadband net adds in Q4. Average speed across the broadband base increased 41% YoY to 301 Mbps, approximately 5x higher than the national average said the company. In just over a year since the original launch, VMO2's flagship converged Volt bundles have continued to perform well with 1.3 million customers now taking a Volt bundle.
The Project Lightning gigabit broadband service passed 519,000 new premises in 2022, meeting the stated full year build target. The 2022 premises passed include 24,000 premises that were subsequently transferred to the nexfibre JV 3 formed by Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia in December. VMO2 is the anchor tenant of this joint venture and will provide build services to nexfibre.
Despite the losses outlined in the fourth quarter and yearly results, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries insisted the company delivered on all guidance metrics, despite challenging macro conditions. “There remains ever-increasing demand across our footprint for reliable access to high-quality fixed and mobile connectivity and we continue driving product innovation to ensure superior customer experiences,” he said. “Financially, while we're not immune from the impacts of high energy and labour costs across our core FMC businesses, we continue to take actions to maintain strong operating margins while further investing in our market-leading fixed and mobile networks. This leaves us well positioned to deliver for shareholders in 2023.”
For the full year, Liberty Global generated $ 7.195 billion in revenue, down 30.2% on an annual basis and posted earnings of $1.105 billion, tumbling 91.8% compared with a year ago. Overall organic customer net losses for the year amounted to 44,500.
Yet among these, figures Virgin Media O2 stood out. In its first full year as a merged company, VMO2 saw continued customer growth in both fixed and mobile, resulting in 71,100 post-paid mobile net adds and 22,700 broadband net adds in Q4. Average speed across the broadband base increased 41% YoY to 301 Mbps, approximately 5x higher than the national average said the company. In just over a year since the original launch, VMO2's flagship converged Volt bundles have continued to perform well with 1.3 million customers now taking a Volt bundle.
The Project Lightning gigabit broadband service passed 519,000 new premises in 2022, meeting the stated full year build target. The 2022 premises passed include 24,000 premises that were subsequently transferred to the nexfibre JV 3 formed by Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia in December. VMO2 is the anchor tenant of this joint venture and will provide build services to nexfibre.
Despite the losses outlined in the fourth quarter and yearly results, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries insisted the company delivered on all guidance metrics, despite challenging macro conditions. “There remains ever-increasing demand across our footprint for reliable access to high-quality fixed and mobile connectivity and we continue driving product innovation to ensure superior customer experiences,” he said. “Financially, while we're not immune from the impacts of high energy and labour costs across our core FMC businesses, we continue to take actions to maintain strong operating margins while further investing in our market-leading fixed and mobile networks. This leaves us well positioned to deliver for shareholders in 2023.”
