Liberty Global Ltd Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Steve Malcolm - Redburn Atlantic - Analyst : I hope you can hear me guys. Yes, one question, quickly. I just wanted to sort of a general free cash flow question beyond 2025. I don't want you to guide on EBITDA as the obvious year. I know you can't group-wise, but it feels like it's another transition year for Liberty. You've had a few this year feels particularly transitional. But as you look into sort of '26 and beyond, maybe just give us a flavor of your outlook for CapEx across the major regions. You talked about Belgium that's going to be down. I guess, Ireland will be done as well, where we are on 5G CapEx in the UK, some quite big moving parts on tax as well. Obviously, demand repatriation tax when that ends. You've done a lot of refinancing or the interest cost outlook beyond 2026. It would be very helpful to get a sort of sense of direction of free cash flow beyond this year below the EBITDA line. If you can sort of throw a bit of light on that, that'd be very helpful.

Question: Joshua Mills - BNP Paribas Exane - Analyst : I'll use my one question to go into a bit more detail on slide 14, please. If I understand this right, I think what you're saying to us is, going forward, you want to illustrate the value of the Central services business. And part of the way you're going to do that is by increasing the MSA fees and trying to get more money from the OpCo levels. I guess my question is, how do you think about the balance there? Because on the one hand, yes, you'll potentially neutralize this negative cash drag, which is clearly a headwind from a valuation perspective. But it's also going to reduce the EBITDA and the free cash flow out of those businesses, which in some cases, are already under pressure. And you're talking about spinning off or doing IPOs within the next few years. So maybe just a couple of commentaries on how you get that balance right so that you can still get what you deem to be fair value for those businesses when they come to market whilst upstreaming cash in an appropriate way to Liberty would be helpful. And then maybe just a part B to that question, are we talking here mainly about the businesses within your 100% ownership? Or have you have the conversations with Telefonica, VMO2 and Vodafone or VodafoneZiggo that they should be paying you more effectively from the JV level up to Liberty because of the services you provide?

Question: Carl Murdock-Smith - Citigroup, Inc. - Analyst : I'll ask the A shares versus C shares question, please, regarding the buyback. Just an update on how you're thinking around that? All of the buyback last year, I think, was done on the fee line despite it being more expensive and now having lower liquidity than the A shares. So I was just wondering on what your thoughts are around the buyback going forward and in terms of which line to do it.

Question: Matthew Harrigan - The Benchmark Company - Analyst : There is a sense at CES this year and some other forums that you'd get an acceleration in the handset replacement cycle. Right now, it's about four years. It's been the longest it's ever been. Some of that could be prompted by AI functionality in the phones beyond the facial recognition and transcription, maybe it's better integrated. So you don't have to fumble around with an app. How do you think an increase in switching activity on the high end of the market could affect your mobile operations in the UK and Benelux? What are the opportunities there? And would you expect to gain share if that finally happened? Obviously, everyone on this call is well aware that 5G in Europe has substantially lagged that in the US, but it does feel like it could be an interesting propellant for your business.

Question: Ulrich Rathe - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst : I have clarification questions on the UK. What was the nature of the working capital benefit in the fourth quarter that's now weighing in a way sort of on the year-on-year trends for free cash flow? And also, what is the nature of these postpaid matters in terms of the acquisition ARPU? I think you mentioned giffgaff as a particular driver, which suggests that this could be ARPU-dilutive, this recovery of the net adds. And if I may, just to clarify, one thing that was left open in the guidance was the nexfibre impact, which has been either way in the past? I mean, how do you actually expect that to unfold in 2025 in the UK?

Question: David Wright - BofA Securities - Analyst : I'm just going to come back to slide 6, your sum-of-the-parts walk, which I think there's an element of -- there's a lot of debate around this, of course, if only the fact that, obviously, the market is not agreeing, and thus, your derivation of the undervalued assets. I guess my question is UK-related but is a derivative of the, which is you talk about there being zero equity value for the telecom assets. But obviously, what we are observing in telecom, I think we know very clearly is that the equity infrastructure assets are valued at a much higher multiple than the ServCo assets. So if you do go down the route in the UK or in Belgium or selling of infrastructure within the NetCos or Wyre or whoever it may be, is it not the case that the value of the mix of the telecom asset will be on a lower EBITDA multiple because you've got less infrastructure and more ServCo? And that's coming to, I guess, my key question here is what potential equity --?

Question: James Ratzer - New Street Research LLP - Analyst : So the areas I was interested in focusing on today, please, was just a spectrum position that you have in the UK asset with Virgin Media. So obviously, with the Vodafone 3 transaction, they build a pretty dominant spectrum position. But to offset that, you will be buying some spectrum from them to strengthen your own position. So I was wondering if you can give us some more insight into the moving parts here. Can you let us know, for example, how much spectrum you will be purchasing? Can you give us some steer on what the cost of that will be? Will we see the cost of that in 2025? Or is it going to be phased in over a few years. And with this new spectrum position, how secured do you feel about, for example, the Sky MVNO on your network and whether they could be learned across with a stronger spectrum position at Vodafone 3? When does that contract with Sky next come up for renewal?