Earnings Labs

Liberty Global plc (LBTYB)

Q1 2012 Earnings Call· Fri, May 11, 2012

$17.00

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Please standby. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Liberty Global’s Investor Call. This call and the associated webcast are the property of Liberty Global, and any redistribution, retransmission or rebroadcast of this call or webcast in any form without the express written consent of Liberty Global is strictly prohibited. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Today’s formal presentation materials can be found under the investor relations section of Liberty Global’s website at www.lgi.com. Following today’s formal presentation, instructions will be given for a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded on this date, May 11, 2012. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Mike Fries, President and CEO of Liberty Global. Please go ahead, sir.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Thank you, and good morning or good afternoon everybody. As usual we have a relatively large group on our call from various time zones. But I’m going to introduce Charlie Bracken and Bernie Dvorak of course our EVPs and co-CFOs. Diederik Karsten, is on, who is our EVP and Head of European Operations; Balan Nair, on a cell phone somewhere in the world, our EVP and Chief Technology Officer; Bryan Hall, EVP General Counsel, and of course we’ve got Rick Westerman, on as well from our IR and Communications Group. So we’re going to do the Safe Harbor and we’ll jump right into it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Page 2 of the slides detail the company’s Safe Harbor statements regarding forward-looking statements. Today’s presentation may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the company’s expectations with respect to its outlook for 2012; and future growth prospects and other information and statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. These risks include those detailed from time-to-time in Liberty Global’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recently filed Forms 10-K and 10-Q. Liberty Global disclaims any obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectation or in the conditions on which any such statement is based. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mike Fries.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Thanks. So as she said, we are going to be working of the slides today. And as I usually do, I’m going to kick it off for some highlights on slide 4. I want to say upfront, our remarks are probably a bit longer than they usually are, but pretty much everything we want to tell you or we want you to take away from this call was right here on this slide. Beginning with perhaps the most important storyline, and that’s our subscriber growth which totaled 445,000 net RGU adds, our best quarter ever in the history of the company. I’ll provide a little more color on this number in a minute, but 11 of our 13 markets are up year-over-year. We continue to exceed even our own internal expectations on sales and churn in most markets. Our recent RGU growth acceleration underpinned rebased revenue growth of 5.5%, which was our best results in six quarters. I know I’ve said publicly that we believe revenue growth in 2012 should exceed 2011 and we’re off to a good start. And on the cash flow front, we generated rebased operating cash flow growth of 3.1%, a pretty good number given the isolated impact of our 4G rol1out in Chile, and an increased sales volume in Europe. And then free cash flow growth of 15%, which is right in line with our full-year guidance. As most of you would know, we have effectively closed sale of our Australian business Austar, and should be receiving net proceeds of $1.1 billion before the end of this month. And we are right on track with the integration of our German businesses Unitymedia and KBW, and should be receiving net proceeds, sorry and I’ll give you a snapshot of that market in just a minute, no…

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

Thanks Mike and hello everybody. I am going to recap our first quarter results; starting on slide 12, which really builds on what Mike said already. As the chart highlight, we increased our reported revenue by 12% or $279 million to $2.54 billion and our OCF expanded similarly by 13% or $134 million to $1.2 billion for the first quarter of 2012 compared to Q1 2011. Now our reported growth in both revenues and OCF was driven to a large extent by the contribution from acquisitions strictly KBW. And this is the first full quarter of the consolidation of KBW’s results. But the remaining increase was attributable to organic growth, which was fueled by the volume gains that we generated over the last 12 months. And for that maybe good acceleration in revenue growth from both broadband and telephony. Offsetting the M&A and organic growth was foreign currency, which is a bit of a headwind for us this quarter. Besides the strengthening Swiss Franc all of our other key currencies actually depreciated against the U.S. dollar on a comparative basis to the first quarter of 2011. And that includes the euro, which depreciated a prior 4%. You know as Mike mentioned our result for that rebased revenue growth of 5.5% and rebased OCF versus 3.1%. Our rebased revenue growth was the best absolute result in six quarters. On the other hand our rebased OCF growth of 3% was tempered and caused by the effects of subscriber acquisition and marketing costs, which include cost associated with our Go-for-Growth strategy at Unitymedia, as well as the impact of the Chilean wireless project and Belgian football rights. Though rebased OCF growth was slower than revenue, our 40 consolidated OCF margin for the quarter was consistent with the prior year period of 47%, as…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We will take our first question from Jeff Wlodarczak with Pivotal Research Group. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: Hi, good morning guys, congratulations on the results. I wanted to get some more granularity around the second quarter rebased growth. Do you have an absolute number you can give us around the heat you are expecting from the Chilean wireless launch and then when do you expect that to go EBITDA positive. And then in Germany the amount of the potential M&A integration costs would be helpful and where there any integration costs in Q1 and I have one follow-up?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Well, I’m not sure that we can provide a whole lot more color on the actual number for the second quarter Jeff, but and Rick you have to remind what we said publicly about Chile operating cash flow, should we give that number out...

Frederick G. Westerman III

Analyst

Yeah. We haven’t given specific granularity around that. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: Okay, fair enough. Then I’ll jump to my next question. There has been a lot of noise recently out of the Netherlands, the Senate recently seems to have picked up we’re off to a kind of left off around analog video plan net neutrality, any more color on that? Is that some thing that you can take to the code system, or that you – and how long do you expect it to play out.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Yeah, I mean that’s some thing we do expect will take some time to play out and we can use both European Union and their regulatory frame work as well as the code system to challenge it. It really is a head scratcher, Jeff. It’s hard for us to understand. The regulator sells few on that market about two years ago, that is plenty competitive and only more competitive today. So I guess I would say politics does that play here and we have to stay vigilant in terms of getting support from EU commission who will likely start infringement proceedings on our behalf. And having said that, what ever occurs, it will probably take some time and last time as you will recall, we had pretty good economic solution even if it did come about but we’re not too worried about as we sit here. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: By the way is it true that they put after charge of setting the pricing which seems kind of odd because (inaudible) is competitive?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Well, yes, it’s very strange. It means in fact that they would put the same regulatory body that concluded, there was plenty of competition in video, in charge of implementing or at least hope kind of presiding over disputes. And that’s one way to think about it. There as to be a dispute really for this to rise to their level. So and also pointing out that very few people ever expressed an interest in using our analog video spectrum for video because of course the market is rapidly moving digital and it’s all about broadband. So it’s a head scratcher, but from time to time, we’re going to have these sort of moments in European national politics and we just broke right through them. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: Great. Thank you very much.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Mike, I’ve got a couple of figures on the VTR wireless loss in the first quarter. The negative EBITDA there was $16 million compared to a negative $6 million in Q1 of 2011. So obviously with the commercial launch, we’ve got a significant amount of cost and it’s really at this point we can’t predict the absolute number of subscribers, the gross ads that we’ll have in Q2 and for the balance of the year for that matter and that’s obviously a huge swing factor with the handset subsidies, with each new handset.

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

And also we haven’t given guidance on the future of VTR (inaudible) I think you can assume it’s negative EBITDA this year at least. So that will be a drag on our growth Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: Okay, thanks.

Michael T. Fries

Management

We did communicate well in the Q4 call, guys I think a $150 million in negative free cash flow for the year, Jeff.

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

That’s right. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: That hasn’t changed.

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

Up to that, yes. That hasn’t changed. Jeff Wlodarczak – Pivotal Research Group LLC: Okay, thanks.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Hugh McCaffrey with Goldman Sachs. Hugh I. McCaffrey – Goldman Sachs International Ltd.: Thanks guys and I was just wondering, if you could update us on your thinking around the pricing environment in Germany, do you see scope for price inflation in your broadband and triple-play offers there?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Well, I mean if you look we have taken some modest rate increases in that market. I mean we have along with improving the product, I’ll let – I can let Diederik to address it more fully, but as we ramp speed and improve our bundles in that marketplace. We’re taking some more rate increases to the tune of €2 or €3, where we can. So while we’re not, well, it’s still competitive market. It is still very much a growth market in terms of raw organic growth. And so we’re finding opportunities as we improve the bundle, which really needs improving speeds and adding more HD to take small, modest rate increases and to do it in a way that doesn’t affect our demand curve. Do you want to add anything to that Diederik.

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

No, Mike that’s pretty much – the only other category could be alignment of tariffs between KBW and Unity where we are also aligning products and from here on we’ll, we not only look at acquisitions but also at so much of pricing amongst the base, but it did hit the radar and I think that’s the key strategy to see how we can move up ARPUs in Germany.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Our main product proposition is to be faster have more features and content in our bundle at or below the price of incompetent and that what’s driving our market share, it’s still very, very profitable growth for us in these markets. It’s not as if we were racing ahead on volume without being very cognizant and careful on returns, so still very positive growth for us and we’re trying to optimize that in this moment because I think we’ve got a good opportunity. Hugh I. McCaffrey – Goldman Sachs International Ltd.: Okay, great and just have a very quick follow-up on speed, you’ve talked about obviously people paying for higher speed, are you still seeing strong demand from the consumer to go up the speed curve not just in Germany but across Europe, your European operation does that right?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Absolutely, it’s only going one direction, I think we’ll also find that our consumption levels are close to 1 gig a day, up from what was it, 200 or 300 just a few years ago, 200 megabyte, so speed and consumption are traveling along the same curve and we spend a lot of time looking at our network infrastructure and our ability to stay ahead of that speed and consumption curve, and we feel really good about that. But there is no question, well two years ago, we were probably talking to you about 25 megabits of bundles being sort of the sweet spot that’s rapidly becoming 50 megabit. That’s an important number though remember, because you really can’t do 50 meg on a VDSL footprint, and in a place like Germany, there might be 20% VDSL coverage, but only 1% fiber-to-the-home coverage. In place like Holland, there might be 40% or 50% VDSL coverage and 25% fiber coverage. So the point is, we have to keep ahead of our competitors in taking advantage of our 3.0 footprint, not pushing it too far, but definitely staying ahead of competitors and telcos are going to hit a wall, right about there if you’re trying to do video as well. So it’s a perfect spot for us to be in. Hugh I. McCaffrey – Goldman Sachs International Ltd.: Okay, that’s helpful. Thanks, Mike.

Operator

Operator

We will take our next question from James Ratcliffe with Barclays. James Maxwell Ratcliffe – Barclays Capital, Inc. : Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Two if I could, first of all, can you help us quantify year-on-year what the impact of the factor RGU growth was on EBITDA in terms of what the incremental inflation costs, or what growth would it look like if you had, had the 180,000 few RGU adds that you did in 1Q ’11? And secondly, I know it’s early, but are you seeing any impact of the German housing associations that were able to end their contracts early as part of the KBW deal and any movement on their part? Thanks.

Michael T. Fries

Management

So, on the second one, we’re trying to be careful because a lot of these processes are unfolding in Germany and on a confidential and negotiated basis. But as I said in my remarks, the process thus far is in line with our expectations, if not a little better. So we’re going to compete for these contracts. And we’re going to compete appropriately and fairly and on the basis of a superior product. And our confidence level is high, as these contracts are opened up and people are given the opportunity to bid and provide alternative infrastructure and pricing to these customers of ours, now we’re going to be on very good footing given the quality of our networks and the quality of relationships. So we already made some assumptions James that over time, we wouldn’t keep every single contract. And this is again, is just a 300 – roughly 40,000 homes that we’re talking about in Germany. But at the same time, we’re going to compete for every contract. And I'm very, very encouraged and proud of the team and what’s been accomplished thus far. I don’t want to give any more than that at this stage. And on the RGU growth, we’ve been – one way that I look at it and Rick and Charlie and Bern may have a different spin on it, it is roughly half of the difference between the 5% revenue growth – 5.5% revenue growth and the 3.1% EBITDA growth, it is attributable to incremental marketing in customer acquisition costs associated with higher volume. And then the other half, you can roughly attribute, and most of that’s in Germany, which we like. In the other half, you can attribute to the Belgian football rights or the mobile launch in Chile and things of that nature. Beyond that guidance, if you want to provide more quantification, you can do it.

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

No. I think that's a pretty good summary. James Ratcliffe – Barclays Capital: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Ryan Fiftal – Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Good morning. It’s Ryan Fiftal on for Ben. So a question on Switzerland, we’ve seen a couple of quarters of revenue acceleration there. And if I’m doing my adjustments correctly, I think it was the best RGU quarter in quite a while. so could you give us a little more detail on that environment, what’s going on in the market, what you’re doing differently that’s starting to get some traction? And then, can that market start to look more like some of your other developed markets like the Netherlands and Belgium?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Yeah. So I think – I’m going to let Diederik to answer this. But I will tell you just from a general point of view, that we do think this market can look like (inaudible) and we put in place probably several years ago a strategy focused on bringing the customer, the customer experience, the competitiveness of our products and our brand. And that is what’s basically and we change the management team. That is what’s proving out today. And in a place like Switzerland, the secret of our success is just having better products. Our bundles would be of 2.5 times the broadband speed for less money. We are offering comparable video, we are going to launch Horizon, we rebrand it. So it’s just blocking and tackling and most importantly improving the churn. I’m really proud of the way we reduced churn across all of our products in that market. The sales are going to be what the sales are to some extent. It’s a mature market, and largely just us and Swisscom. But in the end, if we keep our churn lower and get it down to really, really very low levels. We are going to retain more customers and that those sales dropped down, so I’m really proud of what’s happening in that market. Diederik, do you want to add to that, please?

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

Thanks, Mike. And you’re proud of what we are trying to achieve and outdated in detail things are all coming together. We also have quite a competitive portfolio now versus Swisscom, with like you said almost 2.5 times than the broadband speed for kind of 15% less, and if you add to that team improved operational pieces like [Arthur] in our sales service customer care like you said, I think we are talking about kind of a stepwise and step-by-step going to the right direction. It’s tough market. Swisscom is a tough competitor, but we feel that we are kind of exactly where we’ve to be. I think that the reduction in churn will appraises to the stickiness and the strength of the bundles, it might be an one kind of plan. Do not plan to speed versus competition, where do you go. After having kind of discovered out products, so we feel pretty strong about kind of further developments in Switzerland, [Jamie] like you said big Horizon, which is they’ll do opening for the end of the year like you said. That’s it. Ryan Fiftal – Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

We will take our next question from Matthew Harrigan with Wunderlich Securities. Matthew J. Harrigan – Wunderlich Securities, Inc.: Thank you. Moving back to your comments on VDSL, I think Mike you talked – you were at a panel at the Cable Congress that talk somewhat about some of the new protocols that you’re trying develop like (inaudible) you still think that with reasonable loop length, the physics of the copper are going to sufficient that your DOCSIS network is going to retain in advance of what the telcos were able to do with the copper. And then secondly, in your [queue], I think you’ve got 7% of your German revenues from payments for the broadcasters for programing carriage. I know there’s some offset to that on the programing cost side, but could you talk a little bit how you see that evolving on a net basis in Germany over a longer period of time particularly as you got more video revenues from your advanced customers?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Sure. I’ll start with the second one and Balan, I hope you’re still on, you can talk about the first one. But as you point out, the carriage fees in Germany where we are paid by broadcasters to deliver their broadcast signals essentially is part of the tradition and history of that market. And by the way we are not the only people who are paid, Deutsche Telekom is paid €100 million a year to deliver content on their IPTV platform to roughly 5% of consumers. So in the end price per sub that cable operators are paid is relatively small compared to what they are paying other operators. But having said that, we’re also very realistic that these broadcaster, in particular the commercial broadcaster and very anxious to expand into either digital tiers or into HD content. And so we are finding ourselves for example with RLT and others able to construct arrangements where we’re sharing the upside of their investment in more content. So we’re not fundamentally changing the nature of our carriage fees, but we are creating win-win arrangements where they can essentially offset some of those fees by putting out better content and HD content, and digital content. So I think the way we’re handling this is, is the way we should be handling it, and in the long run we’ll see how it all unfold, but whatever that percentage of revenue is represented today, like carriage fees ultimately the complexion of that relationship and the complexion of those revenue streams are going to alter over time as we incorporate more and more HD content, more and more catch up TV content and broad content, and more and more digital channel. So we’re not classified, and the status of the dialog we have and the quality of the dialog we have with broadcasters in that market including Sky of course who we just announced a major deal with is very, very good. So I’m not too worried about it. Balan, are you still on?

Balan Nair

Analyst

On the VDSL, I’d say it’s probably reached the peak, but it’s going to get through, and then mind as well that we have the share to spend with the video platform, which needs not very much band that’s lost broadband, no matter how high video itself will go, we’ll be able to outpace it at least 5:1. Matthew J. Harrigan – Wunderlich Securities, Inc.: Good to hear, thank you.

Operator

Operator

We will take our next question from David Joyce with Miller Tabak and Company. David C. Joyce – Miller Tabak + Co., LLC: Thank you. I was wondering if you could provide some more color on the early strong growth of net adds in Germany. What sort of tiers or customers coming in at on the Internet speeds, voice adds also are very strong, so it doesn’t seem like there is any wireless new voice substitution, if could comment on that a bit. And then also beyond another one, it’s broader for Horizon, what are the sorts of network upgrades, are you going to look acquire as that rolls out? Thanks.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Sure, Diederik do you want to handle the German question.

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

Yeah, sure Mike, (inaudible) product, best selling product is currently the 50 meg, where we came from 32 meg, broadband for €30 now selling to 50 meg for €33 that’s to who can do the bundle, and telephony as we see also not many other market this kind of movement on the way for the broadband. With respect to the telephony usage, I said it in the German market indeed you might not see kind of transfer from wireline usage to wireless, in my view it also has to do with somewhat traditional kind of nature of that market for example Cable, broadband penetration is also somewhere in the mid-teens compared to 30%, 40%. In other markets, we have to say however that we do see the first signs emerging in other markets and that kind of a decline in telephony usage, wireline. It is not necessarily all going to wireless although we have very little experience, there is followed (inaudible) seems to wireless kind, see declines in telephony usage it maybe social media, what else type of application which kind of takeover the usage.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Fortunately for us we don’t have, we never had a lot of telephony usage in our revenue streams, it’s principally comprised the rental fee and that comes along with the broadband connection, if you buy broadband bundles from us, you are going to get voice for very little incremental cost, and that’s what is generating our revenue mostly in that category. Balan, you want to address the network upgrades on Horizon?

Balan Nair

Analyst

Sorry, I missed the question.

Michael T. Fries

Management

I think the question was with respect to the world of Horizon, or any network upgrades required in what – what are we doing with the network?

Balan Nair

Analyst

Well, absolutely no network upgrades are required for the Horizon platform.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Yeah, some investment in the head-end infrastructure, but that’s it. David C. Joyce – Miller Tabak + Co., LLC: Okay. All right, thank you very much.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Okay.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from (inaudible) with Deutsche Bank. Vivek Khanna – Deutsche Bank: Hi, good afternoon. It’s Vivek Khanna. Can you hear me?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Yeah. Vivek Khanna – Deutsche Bank: Probably I just have a quick question to ask with you guys through CapEx, I mean clearly RGU growth is coming in very well and keenly ahead of our expectations. Can you just provide us maybe an update on CapEx guidance, and then also on what incremental vendor financing you’ll be applying on the back of that? And then finally just on vendor financing, could you provide some color as to how it would work between the various entities like my understanding is, that’s going to come out of Germany to a certain extent, and then the facilities based out of Germany and then UPC will benefit from it also, so just some clarity on how that will work between the various entities, will be very great? Thanks.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Charlie?

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

Yes. I think just to remind, the vendor financing issues is part of the general working capital efficiency project. So it’s not just a vendor financing, it’s things like optimizing your receivables, reducing prepayments et cetera, et cetera. So as part of that, we are working with our vendors trying to extend our payments from roughly an average of 90, to say 92, 93 days, and then two or three day pickup on the average to provide you cash flow benefit. But it do not illustrates the envelope, but we do disclose – just make sure it’s transparent about how we’re doing it. Historically, the way we’ve done it is, is go to the big vendors, if this is going to be a good example strictly once in a very long cash. I just asked them under certain terms payment terms. Increasingly what we’re looking to do is – probably use a bank to intermediate which is a win-win for everybody. And so that program is underway. Because of that we’re not giving specific guidance as to who is getting what of vendor financing. It depends a lot on how much is spent by the Germans on, they stick to equipments or will spend by the opinions on (inaudible). So I think it will be – wanting me to give me guidance, but in general you’re right. It is easier, it derives the vendor financing benefit from the CPE purchases, because clearly we’re using a smaller number of large vendors who are at this stage more (inaudible) to the program, although all the time we may optimize that further. So I think that I wouldn’t give you specific guidance on how we are (inaudible) with Germany or how we’re just going out to Europe, but it will play a role and I think the number we got in Q1 is kind of indicative of the cash flow benefit, usually expect to see going forward, we must have the right to tweak it up or tweak it down depending on the attractiveness of the payment terms of the vendors.

Michael T. Fries

Management

(Inaudible) 30 million in Q1, and there is no change to our cash CapEx guidance which as a percent of revenue this year will be down. We expect 50 to 100 basis points compared with last year. Vivek Khanna – Deutsche Bank: Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

And we’ll take our next question from Will Milner with Arete. Will N. Milner – Arete Research Services LLP: Thanks very much. My first question is just on the Chilean wireless project. I mean, obviously we’re talking about the drag to EBITDA and free cash flow from that project. It strikes me we’re going to be the fifth network operator in Chile. And I think we see next our launch quite recently were cheap price plans, we’ve also seen (inaudible) falling EBITDA, I mean in the last quarter. So it seems a pretty competitive market with falling prices. I wonder if you can just talk a bit more about yield prospects for generating a return on the mobile investments in that kind of environment, and what options you might have – what other options you might have to generate a return in that market including second part in consolidation? Thanks.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Sure. I’ll kick it off and Mauricio Ramos is on, I’ll let him deal with the specifics. But I’ll tell you that certainly Chile, it looks different than many of our other markets from the point of view of the reach we have of that country in terms of physical reach in our networks, the brand, the position we hold, we’re really are the incumbent in many ways in that market, at least on our footprint in terms of video, voice and data market share. And the way Mauricio and his team had effectively and very inexpensively acquired spectrum, constructed towers and put in place nationwide roaming deals to allow us to have a nationwide launch in a relatively quick manner. So the beauty of that in this instance is we don’t need a lot of market share quite frankly to make this business work given the way in which we’ve constructed it and capitalized it, but I’ll let Mauricio to make the case. Mauricio?

Mauricio Ramos

Analyst

Sure. There’s a couple of things that as Mike was pointing out are different and make us the unique new player in the mobile market place in Chile. Number one is, as Mike was saying, we’re number one in each one of the products that we offer within footprint. so if you will, we are extending that position into a new line of business. That’s different from any other player that’s entered a market in many locations in the world and certainly different from all the other places that are entering Chile. We’re doing it from the position of leadership in each one of our products, leadership in our brand, and we’re doing it, as Mike was saying, in a very cost-effective manner. The second big differentiator that we have precisely because of our position as a fixed broadband and telephony operator is the ability to offer fixed mobile integration, which we are in a unique position to do, none of the entrants – other entrants are and some of the existing players are not really in that position perhaps other than Movistar of Telefónica, which center on handicaps. The second thing that is very important to bear in mind is that unlike the U.S. and certainly unlike perhaps certain markets elsewhere in the world, the Chilean mobile marketplace remains a very healthy business with high ARPUs and low minutes of usage. Just to give you an idea, OCF margin is about 40%, operating free cash flow margin is about 20%, 25%. And only above 30% of the subscriber base is postpaid and being converted very, very rapidly. Mobile broadband has exploded there and we are the fixed broadband provider of choice in a unique situation to complement our product with a mobile broadband offering, especially, because we are going…

Michael T. Fries

Management

So the price increase was on new customers and I don’t think, correct me if I’m wrong, (inaudible) it’s a retroactive price increase on existing customers, but we haven’t seen a lot of spin-down or spin-up. and generally speaking, when we put these price increases in, we had some promotional period. but do you want to add any color to that, Diederik?

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

No, you’re right. There’s no slowdown in sales, which we would expect as a positive or negative reaction. so it’s good news, I’d like to say that doesn’t (inaudible) because most of the base percentage is still in their promotional period, but we are considering obviously to lifting the price as well. Okay, got it, Will? Will N. Milner – Arete Research Services LLP: Sorry, I just missed the last. but you are considering increasing prices for existing customers. Was that final comment?

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

Yeah. We’re not ruling that out, but as I said most of the – let’s say most, the actual base is still in there, I’d say promotional period where we can’t just raise the price, but obviously it crossed our mind. So that will be the future event. Will N. Milner – Arete Research Services LLP: Okay, thank you.

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

Okay.

Operator

Operator

And we will take our – do you want to continue?

Diederik Karsten

Analyst

No, no, I’m done.

Operator

Operator

Okay, perfect. We’ll take our final question today, Vijay Jayant with ISI Group. Vikash Harlalka – ISI Group, Inc.: Hi, this is Vikash Harlalka in for Vijay. I was hoping you could help us to reconcile the fact that when I look at other Western Europe, the RGUs seem to have grown almost 50%, but when I look at the revenue [on abroad], that’s significantly lower than what you did last year?

Michael T. Fries

Management

Vijay, we had hard time hearing you, but I’m going to try to translate a little bit. You correct if you can hear me okay whether I wrong. All right. I think you were asking about try to reconcile the acceleration in RGU growth in Western Europe, with the revenue in OCF result. And I’d tell you simply that obviously what we do in the first quarter in Western Europe, quarter-over-quarter isn’t going to impact, we are not going to get the real impact of that till the succeeding quarters or the following quarters. I’m not sure that’s sort a generic answer but – did we get the question right Vijay, because you are coming through very… Vikash Harlalka – ISI Group, Inc.: Sorry, sorry. I was taking about other Western Europe that’s Ireland and Austria.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Okay. Well, I mean in places like Austria, it takes more to move the needle there, but in a very competitive market like Austria, we’re finding of course that – to keep the business on course, we have to be competitive, and that some times means faster speeds and more effective the prices. So I think you’re going to – and you have been following us for some time, you realize that Austria is very mature and competitive market, relatively good cash flow yield, but it has always been a bit challenged on the top line and both in terms of subscriber growth and revenue growth indeed which won’t add anything to that.

Balan Nair

Analyst

Probably ARPUs [are at the right] – where we also now see that ARPUs are stabilizing in Austria and some of the other competitors are also struggling with them, and – so the heated promotional environment which we’re facing out with [Novell Beta] three years ago, seem to be over. Next then, moving to Ireland, it’s the only country where we do see declines in, particularly the premium market, premium DTV packages as a result of the somewhat I’d say lackluster economic conditions, and that is dampening the very healthy, and I’d say development in Ireland that particular market, people are downgrading, Sky must see it as well away from the premium market. We see that’s something temporary, but that’s an adverse revenue hit in Ireland.

Charles H.R. Bracken

Management

Did that help, Vijay. Vikash Harlalka – ISI Group, Inc.: Yeah.

Michael T. Fries

Management

Okay, I hope that was a yes. So listen, I appreciate everybody joining the call, a couple of us are getting over a bad cold, but I do appreciate everybody checking in, and we had as we said a really great quarter. We feel extremely good about how the second quarter has unfolded. You know things are clicking in all fronts with our business so we feel very, very positive, and as always we appreciate your support. And you know where to find Rick and his team if you have follow-up questions, thanks for joining us.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Liberty Global’s Q1 2012 Investor Call. As a reminder, a replay of the call will be available in the Investor Relations section of Liberty Global’s website at www.lgi.com. There you can also find a copy of today’s presentation materials.