Liberty Global LBTYAreported first-quarter 2018 loss of $1.47 per share significantly wider than year-ago quarter loss of 35 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings was pegged at 8 cents per share.
Revenues on a reported basis rose 18.4% year over year to $4.16 billion, which comfortably surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.
Top-line growth was driven by 8.7% increase in revenues from Germany and 5.2% increase in Virgin Media revenues. Recently, Liberty launched its first gigabit broadband service powered by Docsis 3.1 technology in Bochum, Germany.
Acquisitions/Divestitures
Liberty now expects its previously announced sale of UPC Austria for €1.9 billion to TMobile Austria to close in the second half of 2018.
In March, the company also announced the termination of its planned purchase of Multimedia Polska.
Liberty also announced the divestiture of its operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone VODfor a total enterprise value of approximately €19.0 billion ($22.7 billion).
Revenue Details
Residential cable revenues increased 2.8% year over year to $3.1 billion. Residential mobile revenues (including interconnect and handset sales) were $0.4 billion, up 4.5%.