Liberty Global Ltd at Bank of America C-Suite TMT Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : But I just wanted to begin with you Charlie, earlier this year, you came to market with your strategic review, so to speak where you're sort of four or five big strategic, I guess announcements or reviews across your operations, one of which was the spin Sunrise, and we'll come to that shortly. In terms of those -- all the big shift that you talked about. Why don't we just begin with the UK, for instance, the creation of an echo. Can you just talk around the theory of that the advantages that can bring and where that kind of sits within the whole network evolution?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Interesting. So I feel like that narrative from you guys has evolved a little and we obviously had the announcement to overbuild, the UK co-ax network, a couple of years back in the summer. And there was the separate 7 million fiber build that was announced to. It's now kind of within the narrative that NetCo could be used to consolidate the outlets. It does seem like the alternate business model is being questioned a lot, I think, by the market as one that's maybe less sustainable in a higher rate environment. Do you feel like this is almost an opportunity that's come to you guys to move faster on the fiber overlay and take advantage maybe of some of these opportunities?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : So I sat on a nice -- sorry up. So I observed a panel at a conference last week, where BT CityFibre and I see BMO2 your CFO were present along with Sky's Director of broadband acquisition strategy. If I refer to my question king maker, (multiple speakers) Actually, one of the things that CityFibre it was Greg, the CEO mentioned, was that consolidation was not straightforward because of different standards, different levels of qualities of installation. Is that something that you guys are observing? Is that something that --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : And then I guess the final question around this is that it was a question put to to Sky representative, which is -- if you are a wholesale [if you're an ISP], taking a wholesale product, they want to have multiple wholesalers (inaudible) do I want to have some my customers on BT some on BMO2, someone CityFibre where I've got three wholesale interfaces, three routes to customer service, if something goes wrong, is that bringing me a complexity that I don't need a Sky and I just say script, I'll go at BT. Is -- do you think that the wholesale the multiple -- wholesale option is seamless?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Let's jump over to the panel. So you've settled the Benelux Hold Co. I'm assuming the idea is that the Telenet equity just drops straight into that. It's hard not to look at that and think you've got Vodafone Ziggo as well. Is there something to be done here? I don't know if that's anything you can really elaborate (inaudible) --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay. And then just I guess to the slightly less operational, I mean, it's very operational of course, in terms of how those businesses are wrong. But from your own perspective, the Ventures portfolio, you had a very successful sale of altering media, in terms of the multiple (multiple speakers) the arbitrage versus Liberty share price? Is that something that you could you'll see over time assets within ventures mature a little get sold off that today is that (inaudible) --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay, very good. We're going to come back on some of the implied share price dynamics, which is always a foreign conversation, but I did want to move over to Sunrise a little. The basic justification for the spin, I'm assuming is that you bring it out of the conglomerate and a conglomerate discount that is undoubtedly present your (inaudible) --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : We present you probably say it's in the high-tens of percentages is to bring it out, obviously the Liberty conglomerate, but also it being a Swiss asset, they do tend to trade a little bit more on dividend it's a different cost of capital market. We've seen this dynamic with Swisscom. I'm assuming that the basic theory around this, apart from the fact that it's --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay. So they go that your dividend commitment and (multiple speakers) that you had said that (multiple speakers) So look. So first things first, obviously, you also nice, but it is a reasonably recent merger of Sunrise and UPC. How is that integration progressing you now towards the closing stages or is there still more to come?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Absolutely. Okay. So lots to unpack there. But essentially, it's a pretty tough environment. The Swiss market, you've got this very sort of very high level -- service level operator, and he commented Swisscom got this very aggressive guidance salt and the price points are quite remarkably different that we are seeing that in the KPIS, whereas Sunrise positioned, if that the extremes you guys in the middle on, I've always been quite nervous about operators in the middle. I like to think operators perform when they are the best or the cheapest. So I'm interested in your view. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay very good and let's talk networks. You are predominantly cable today. I'm not sure whether you've got any fiber -- it's very, very small, predominately cable operator, you have a fairly slow-moving Swisscom and that's a function of some regulatory issues, but either way the fiber has lagged, but their ambitions are high in terms of their coverage and the risk that could perhaps be perceived is the salt has access to that fiber. So they have access to this. (multiple speakers) you had access to it and I agree with that. But in terms of how do you think about the migration of your cable or the evolution, I should say of your cable strategy over time?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay. So essentially, there's an element of does a very good network (inaudible) kind of sweat the asset element at the moment until maybe the obligation is that to really move forward. And then you have options, whether you invest or whether you (multiple speakers) --

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay, fair enough. I thinks that's very, very credible and Okay. So if we then think about the growth and the cash flow growth. Can you just walk us through the parts of that or so, for instance, I think on pricing, you guys are having to look at a much lower. In fact, I don't think you're raising prices this year. Is that right for us across the portfolio? So we think about how you're actually going to grow your cash flows, whether that be market share growth through to OpEx synergies, lower CapEx, et cetera, if you could just give us a simple walk through?

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay, it's a very exciting story with that (multiple speakers) that is the blow from Scotiabank, but we have literally a minute or two left, that's a super run through Sunrise. We've talked about NetCo Banno expenses. If you just wanted to lay out, Charlie, very simply the kind of, let's think about an 18-month program of kind of where all of these things start to execute occur. However, that might be, I guess first of all, we had Sunrise spend. Maybe you could talk us through however, is how will Lowe's or the strategic.

Question: David Wright - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Okay. Well, looks like we've got a very exciting -- let's go beyond 18 months for Liberty Global. So goes, we'd say thank you for everyone attending (multiple speakers) DISCLAIMER Thomson Reuters reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON REUTERS OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.