Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) declared financial results for the fourth quarter 2009. Quarterly total revenue of $1,538 million was up 11.8% year-over-year but fell below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,560 million. The year-over-year increase in revenue was primarily due to significant growth of the consumer cable segment.
Net loss, in the fourth quarter was $148.2 million or 46 cents per share compared to a net loss of $274 million or 83 cents in the prior-year quarter. However, the adjusted (excluding special items) net loss in the reported quarter was 38 cents, significantly higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 22 cents.
Quarterly cost of sales was $649.4 million compared to $625.8 million in the prior-year quarter. Selling, General & Administrative expense was $313.5 million compared to $289 million in the year-ago quarter. Total operating expenses were $1,438 million compared to $1,368 million in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly operating income was $100 million compared to $7.4 million in the prior-year quarter.
During the fourth quarter of 2009, Virgin Media generated $404.3 million of cash from operations compared to $233.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly free cash flow (cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) was $159.7 million compared to $31.9 million in the prior-year quarter.
At the end of fiscal 2009, Virgin Media had $676 million of cash and cash equivalents and $9,380 million of outstanding debt compared to $263.3 million of cash and cash equivalents and $8,946.6 million of outstanding debt at the end of fiscal 2008.
Subscriber Statistics
During the fourth quarter 2009, Virgin Media added 228,900 net new customers which raised its total customer base to 13,082,800 at the end of 2009.
Net customer addition for the broadband segment was 76,100 and resulted in a total subscriber base of 4,103,500.
Net customer addition for the TV segment was 34,200 and resulted in a total subscriber base of 3,743,200.
Net customer addition for the Telephone segment was 41,500 and resulted in a total subscriber base of 4,286,400.
Net customer addition for the Mobile segment was 77,100 and resulted in a total subscriber base of 949,700.
Consumer Segment
Overall quarterly revenue of the Consumer segment was $1,250 million, up 4.9% year-over-year. Within this segment, Cable revenue was $1,005 million, an improvement of 6.1% over the prior-year quarter. ARPU (average revenue per user) from Cable services also increased 5.8% to $70.4 in the reported quarter. Average monthly Cable churn remained stable year-on-year at 1.2% but improved over the previous quarter churn rate of 1.5%.
Mobile revenue, in the fourth quarter, was $218.2 million, down 1.5% year-over-year. Non-Cable revenue was $26.7 million, up 16.4% year-over-year.
Business Segment
Business segment revenue, in the fourth quarter, was $228 million, down 6.4% year-over-year. Within this segment, the high-margin Retail data revenue was $89.7 million, up 14.7% year-over-year. Retail voice revenue was $66 million, down 7.5% year-over-year. LAN solutions revenue was $13 million, down 28.6% year-over-year. Wholesale revenue was $59 million, down 21.7% year-over-year.
Content Segment
Quarterly revenue of this segment was $60 million, up 11.7% year-over-year.
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