Liberty Global Capex reaches $3.2 billion in 2013

Liberty Global today invested $3.2 billion in property and equipment additions or 22 percent of revenue in 2013 as compared to $2.3 billion or 23 percent of revenue in 2012.

The increase in its property and equipment additions was due principally to the inclusion of Virgin Media from the date of acquisition.

If it includes Virgin Media, the combined property and equipment additions would be $3.8 billion or 22 percent of revenue.

Liberty Global revenue increased 71 percent to $4.5 billion and 46 percent to $14.5 billion for the three months and year ended December 31, 2013, respectively.

The growth in both periods was primarily driven by the inclusion of Virgin Media for approximately seven months and strong RGU growth fueled by broadband internet additions.

Liberty Global operating income increased 1 percent for each of the three-month and full-year periods ended December 31, 2013, to $518 million and $2.0 billion, respectively.

Liberty global

For the three months and year ended December 31, 2013, it reported net losses of $121 million and $964 million, respectively.

In 2013, Liberty Global grew subscriber base by 39 percent or 13.4 million RGUs via a combination of acquisitions, including the Virgin Media acquisition in the United Kingdom, and 1.3 million RGUs from organic growth, including 413,000 additions in the fourth quarter.

Liberty Global also increased customer base by 4.7 million during 2013 (inclusive of acquisitions) with double- and triple-play bundled customers accounting for approximately 57 percent of its total customers.

It added 867,000 broadband RGUs (including 270,000 in Q4) and 718,000 telephony RGUs (including 192,000 in Q4). It ended 2013 with broadband and telephony penetrations of 32 percent and 27 percent, respectively, which reflect increases from year-end 2012 penetrations of 29 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Liberty Global lost 294,000 video subscribers (including 50,000 in Q4) during 2013. At December 31, 2013, we had 13.2 million digital video subscribers, which equates to 63 percent digital penetration. It reached a next-generation video base of 2.5 million or approximately 19 percent of digital TV base as of the first week of February 2014. This includes 2.0 million TiVo subscribers in the U.K. and 500,000 total Horizon TV subscribers across our Dutch, Swiss, Irish and German markets.

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