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Liberty’s parent co. ‘raring to go’ on building upon its AT&T acquisition

A few days after closing its $1.95 billion all-cash acquisition of AT&T Puerto Rico’s local and U.S. Virgin Islands assets, Liberty Latin America is “raring to go” on building upon what the new assets will bring to local subsidiary Liberty Puerto Rico.

In a conference call to discuss its third quarter results, Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said although it is still early in the integration, Liberty has “been preparing for some time and [is] raring to go.”

“As with any in-market combination, we anticipate the transaction will generate significant synergies, and our expectations have not materially changed from when we agreed to the transaction,” he said, of the deal announced in October 2019.

Through the acquisition Liberty expects to “create an integrated operator with leading fixed and mobile propositions. We expect that this will enable us to deliver convergent product offerings for our customers, benefiting from cross-selling opportunities and reduce churn.”

During the presentation, Nair broke down the company’s list of five “immediate focus areas,” which call for integrating and growing into one company “as quickly as we can.” The roadmap also plans to “excite our customers with new fixed mobile propositions.”

“Third, and crucially, we need to ensure service continuity as we migrate to our platforms. Fourth, we want to build and enhance our reputation as the leading full-service communications provider for consumers and businesses. And lastly, we want to innovate, leading with touchless, digital sales and service channels,” he said.

“We will have a lot more to say about the business when we report our year-end results in February,” Nair said, adding that the recently closed deal is “increasing U.S. dollar cash flows for the Liberty Latin America route.”

By combining Liberty’s fixed broadband network with AT&T’s wireless infrastructure — including 5G capacity throughout Puerto Rico and the USVI — the company expects to provide both types of services to current and prospective customers, executives have said.

Nair explained that the acquisition has created “overlaps between our customer and AT&T customers. We have bunch of our customers that don’t have AT&T mobile, and we have a bunch of AT&T mobile customers that don’t have a broadband. So, we see the opportunity is quite significant there.”

During the call, Liberty Puerto Rico CEO Naji Khoury said there will likely be a focus on “cross-selling each other not only on the broadband but also on the video as well as we believe the attach rate also could potentially increase. So, we’re really excited about the opportunity, and so far, on the five things that are going really well.”

Liberty acquired 1 million AT&T customers as part of the transaction, as this media outlet reported.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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