Chile's VTR invested US$40mn in Q1

VTR Finance invested 37.1bn Chilean pesos (US$40mn) in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 22.2bn pesos in the same period 2023.

The company is part of a holding controlled 50:50 by Liberty Latin America and America Móvil, via Claro, that owns directly or indirectly 100% of Chilean telco VTR.

Revenues were 106bn pesos, down from 112bn.

Property and equipment additions were 21.8bn pesos, compared to 24.3bn in first quarter 2023. The decrease was due to lower amounts invested in customer premises equipment additions and network build and upgrade equipment, the company said in a release. 

Disbursements on property and equipment represented 21% and 22% of Q1 revenue, respectively.

The capital expenditures do not include amounts that are financed under capital-related vendor financing. 

Residential fixed revenues totaled 92.4bn pesos in the quarter 2024, down 7% from a year earlier.

The decline is attributable to lower average broadband internet, video and fixed-line telephony revenue generating units (RGUs) as well as lower ARPU because of competition, VTR said. 

As of March 31, the company had a fixed network that passed 4.29mn homes and served 2.38mn RGUs, comprising 1mn broadband internet subscribers, 874,800 video subscribers, 416,300 fixed-line subscribers and 418,300 mobile subscribers.

A year ago, VTR reported 1mn broadband internet subscribers, 897,300 video subscribers and 448,500 fixed-line subscribers.

Recently, the ClaroVTR joint company announced it signed a 15-year agreement with Telefónica and KKR's fiber optics company OnNet Fibra for migrating cable modem customers to fiber optics.

Under the agreement, 4.3mn homes passed with fiber – the entire OnNet Fibra network – will be added to the networks of Claro and VTR.

Residential mobile revenue was up 24.6% to 8.6bn pesos. In the mobile business, the company added 28,000 clients in the quarter, achieving one of the highest growth rates in recent years.

B2B revenues fell 5.8% to 4.9bn pesos. 

Net losses totaled 88bn pesos compared to a 2.9bn-peso profit reported in 1Q23. The loss was also 27.6bn pesos higher than the last quarter of 2023 due to the impact of exchange rates. 

Excluding the impact of exchange rates, VTR reduced its losses by 8.5% compared to the previous quarter, the company said.