Millicom Q4 Operating Profit Surges; Revenue Up 17.3% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Millicom reported fourth-quarter net income of $223 million largely due to non-cash fair value adjustments and higher operating profit. Operating profit increased 20.7% on lower operating expenses and acquisitions. Profit per share was $2.20 compared to a loss of $0.94, prior year.

Fourth-quarter group revenue increased 17.3% year-on-year to $1.15 billion. The company said the increase largely reflects two acquisitions in Panama and one in Nicaragua.

For Latin America (Latam) segment, fourth-quarter EBITDA increased 23.5% year-on-year to $648 million. Organic EBITDA growth was 2.0%, for the segment. OCF rose 60.1% year-on-year to $285 million. On an organic basis, OCF grew 10.6%.

For Latam segment, revenue increased 14.2% year-on-year to $1.6 billion, while service revenue also increased 14.2%. Organic service revenue growth was 2.3%. Latam segment added 1.9 million 4G smartphone data customers during fourth quarter and 4.9 million during the fiscal year to reach 15.4 million at year-end.

For 2020, the company expects to make meaningful progress toward its medium term goal to deliver mid-single-digit organic service revenue growth, mid-to-high single-digit organic EBITDA growth, and around 10% OCF organic growth for the Latam segment.