The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company's (BTC) ultimate owner yesterday voiced optimism its mobile business will deliver an "improved performance" heading into 2020 despite further subscriber losses.

Balan Nair, Liberty Latin America's chief executive, told analysts during a conference call to discuss its 2019 first half and second quarter results that it had been "very focused" on BTC and was "confident" it now has the right strategy and management team in place.

"We have been very focused in The Bahamas, and although we saw net losses again in the second quarter we are confident that we have the right plan, management team and priorities that we expect will lead to an improved performance as we move to 2020," Mr Nair said.

Chris Noyes, Liberty Latin America's chief financial officer, added that mobile revenues were particularly challenged at BTC and the group's Panama operations due to the impact of competition on both pricing and market share.

"As in the prior quarter mobile revenue remained challenging year-over-year, especially in Panama and The Bahamas, although sequentially from the first quarter we saw signs of revenue stabilisation reflecting the impact of our commercial offers."

Tribune Business revealed earlier this week that BTC suffered a $13.6m revenue decline for the 2019 first-half, as its top-line dropped by 11.4 percent year-over-year to $106.1m compared to $119.7m the year before.

The Bahamian communications carrier's revenues for the 2019 second quarter, which includes the three months to end-June, were also off 7.4 percent year-over-year at $52.5m compared to $56.7m for 2018.

The top-line declines appear to have been driven by a further 9,300 net loss of mobile subscribers during the 2019 second quarter, which challenges the optimism expressed by Garfield "Garry" Sinclair, BTC's chief executive, that market share declines were starting to "plateau" in his recent interview with Tribune Business.

Data provided by Liberty Latin America showed that a modest gain of 700 post-paid mobile subscribers was more than offset by the loss of another 10,000 pre-paid customers during the three months to end-June 2019.

This left BTC with some 213,500 mobile subscribers as at June 30, split between 188,000 pre-paid customers and 25,500 post-paid subscribers, with the numbers providing further evidence that its upstart rival, Aliv, continues to eat into its market share and legacy monopoly.

Mr Nair confirmed the continuing slippage, and BTC's two trade unions are also likely to query his assertion that the Bahamian carrier now has the correct strategy and management team in place given their recent hostility towards Mr Sinclair and filing of a trade dispute over negotiations for a new voluntary separation package (VSEP).

The Liberty Latin America chief was himself recently embroiled in a controversy that forced him to make a written apology to Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, after a video showing him questioning the productivity and work ethic of BTC staff before the group's Jamaican employees went viral.

Liberty Latin America's results announcement reiterated that BTC continues to be a drag on the performance of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), its immediate parent, which was acquired by the former some years after the 2011 privatisation.

It said of CWC: "Mobile revenue attrition of 9 percent on a rebased basis was partly offset by rebased revenue growth of 4 percent in B2B (business) and 1 percent in residential fixed.

"The reduction in mobile revenue year-over-year was primarily attributable to lower service revenue in Panama and The Bahamas, where continued competition drove decreases in ARPU (average revenue per user) and the average number of subscribers."

BTC's subscriber numbers showed virtually no positive improvement elsewhere. Customer numbers excluding mobile fell by 2,900 during the 2019 second quarter, with TV/video and Internet subscribers declining by 500 apiece and fixed-line telephone customers down by 1,900.

While BTC's infrastructure passes some 128,900 Bahamian homes, it had just 6,100 TV/video and 25,700 Internet customers at end-June 2019. Telephone customers totalled 44,400, bringing BTC's non-mobile revenue generating units to 76,200.