MARKETS
NTL acquisition boosts Liberty's coffers
14-03-2006
by Ciara O'Brien
Liberty Global, parent company of the newly merged NTL and Chorus, posted a 28 percent increase in revenue compared to last year.
This gives Liberty Global revenue of USD5.15 billion for the year, mainly driven by its acquisitions in countries around the world.
In December 2004 the company purchased Chorus for 6.4 million shares valued at USD55 million. Meanwhile, in 2005 it acquired NTL in a EUR325 million deal, but the Competition Authority only approved the merger in November, subject to stringent conditions, about six months after the firm confirmed it was going to buy NTL.
NTL and Chorus combined passed 887,200 homes in Ireland; 601,000 of these are deemed revenue generating units (RGU). This compares to a combined RGU total of 576,200 for the same period the previous year for both NTL and Chorus.
With broadband access in Ireland hitting the headlines once more, Liberty Group's claim of having 225,000 home enabled for broadband services is looking quite attractive. However, only 25,000 of these have actually signed up for broadband services, reflecting the difficulty encountered by broadband providers throughout the Irish market.
Telephony services fared much worse; of the 24,200 homes that could receive the services from Liberty Global, only 400 took up the offer. Analogue TV subscribers still vastly outnumber digital customers, with 321,500 and 141,000 respectively.
Liberty hasn't only been busy in Ireland; during the year it made a number of acquisitions that have boosted its potential for the coming years.
"In terms of strategic developments, we had a busy and successful year on the M&A front, in particular during the fourth quarter when we closed the purchases of Cablecom in Switzerland, Astral in Romania, NTL in Ireland, Setamachi (Odakyu) and Kobe in Japan, and took a controlling stake in Austar's pay-TV operation in Australia," said Mike Fries, president and CEO of Liberty Group.
"Our 2005 acquisitions added over 4 million RGUs to our consolidated footprint," said Fries.
During the last quarter of 2005, revenue at the parent company grew 24 percent on a pro forma basis to USD1.4 billion compared with the same period last year. Acquisitions and organic growth of 10 percent drove this growth.
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