Charter Announces Fourth Quarter 2018 Results

PRNewswire 31-Jan-2019 7:00 AM

STAMFORD, Conn., Jan. 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Charter Communications, Inc. (along with its subsidiaries, the "Company" or "Charter") today reported financial and operating results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2018.

Key highlights:

• During the fourth quarter, Charter completed its all-digital and DOCSIS 3.1 initiatives. As of December 31, 2018, virtually all of Charter's national footprint was all-digital and Charter's Spectrum Internet Gig service is now available throughout Charter's footprint.
• Fourth quarter total residential and SMB customer relationships increased 248,000, compared to 209,000 during the fourth quarter of 2017. During the year ended December 31, 2018, total residential and SMB customer relationships grew by 3.5% to 28.1 million, and total residential and SMB Internet customers grew by 1.3 million, or 5.3% to 25.3 million, with 329,000 residential and SMB Internet customer net additions in the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Fourth quarter revenues of $11.2 billion grew 5.9%, as compared to the prior year period, driven by residential revenue growth of 3.9%, commercial revenue growth of 4.5%, and advertising revenue growth of 34.1%.
• Fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $4.2 billion grew 4.6% year-over-year, and 7.6% when excluding fourth quarter mobile revenue and operating expenses.
• For the year ended December 31, 2018, revenues rose to $43.6 billion, 4.9% higher than in 2017. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $16.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of 5.0% compared to the prior year. Excluding mobile revenue and operating expenses in 2018, Adjusted EBITDA grew by 6.5% year-over-year.
• Net income attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $296 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $9.6 billion during the same period last year. For the year ended December 31, 2018, net income attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $1.2 billion, compared to $9.9 billion in 2017. The year-over-year decrease in net income in the fourth quarter and for the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily driven by a GAAP tax benefit from a reduction in the deferred tax liability as a result of Federal tax reform in 2017.
• Fourth quarter capital expenditures totaled $2.4 billion and included $28 million of all-digital costs and $106 million of mobile-related capital expenditures. For the year ended December 31, 2018, capital expenditures totaled $9.1 billion, or $8.9 billion excluding mobile-related capital expenditures.
• During the fourth quarter, Charter purchased approximately 4.3 million shares of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Communications Holdings, LLC ("Charter Holdings") common units for approximately $1.4 billion. For the year ended December 31, 2018, Charter purchased approximately 16.2 million shares of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $5.0 billion.

"We performed well in 2018, growing our Internet customer base by 1.3 million, cable revenue by 4.7%, and cable Adjusted EBITDA by 6.5% -- very strong operating and financial performance, particularly in the midst of what we believe is the largest cable integration ever," said Tom Rutledge, Chairman and CEO of Charter Communications. "In 2019, we expect the operating and cash flow performance of our cable business will further demonstrate the superiority of our network, the returns of our recent investments, and the long-term value creation driven by our consumer-focused operating strategy."

Footnotes
In thousands, except per customer and penetration data. See footnotes to unaudited summary of operating statistics on page 5 of the addendum of this news release. The footnotes contain important disclosures regarding the definitions used for these operating statistics.

All percentages are calculated using whole numbers. Minor differences may exist due to rounding.  NM - Not meaningful

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Charter's residential customer relationships grew by 207,000, while fourth quarter 2017 residential customer relationships grew by 170,000. Residential PSUs increased by 170,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to fourth quarter 2017 residential PSU net additions of 288,000. The year-over-year decrease in PSU net additions was driven by a decline in voice and video net additions in the fourth quarter of 2018. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 26.3 million residential customer relationships and 49.9 million residential PSUs.

Charter added 289,000 residential Internet customers in the fourth quarter of 2018, versus fourth quarter 2017 Internet customer net additions of 263,000. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 23.6 million residential Internet customers, with over 80% of those residential Internet customers subscribing to tiers that provided 100 Mbps or more of speed. Currently, 100 Mbps is the slowest speed offered to new Internet customers in 99% of Charter's footprint. Additionally, Charter has doubled minimum Internet speeds to 200 Mbps in a number of markets at no additional cost to new and existing Spectrum Internet customers.

During the fourth quarter, Charter further expanded the availability of its Spectrum Internet Gig service to a number of new markets. The service, which uses DOCSIS 3.1 technology, is now available in 99% of Charter's footprint.

Residential video customers decreased by 36,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018, while fourth quarter 2017 video customers increased by 2,000. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 16.1 million residential video customers.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Charter completed its all-digital efforts in its Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House footprints. As of December 31, 2018, virtually all of Charter's national footprint was all-digital. All-digital allows Charter to offer more advanced products and services, and provides residential customers with two-way digital set-top boxes, which offer better video picture quality, an interactive programming guide and video on demand on all TV outlets in the home.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, residential voice customers declined by 83,000, while fourth quarter 2017 voice customers grew by 23,000. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 10.1 million residential voice customers.

Fourth quarter 2018 residential revenue per customer relationship (excluding mobile revenue) totaled $111.78, and grew by 0.9% compared to the prior year period, as promotional rate step-ups and modest rate adjustments, were partly offset by continued single play Internet sell-in.

In September of 2018, Charter completed the full market launch of its Spectrum Mobile^TM service to new and existing Spectrum Internet customers across its footprint. Spectrum Mobile runs on America's largest, most reliable LTE network and is combined with a nationwide network of Spectrum WiFi hotspots. Spectrum Mobile customers can choose one of two simple ways to pay for data, "Unlimited" for $45 a month (per line), or "By the Gig" at $14/GB. During the fourth quarter of 2018, Charter added 113,000 mobile lines, and as of December 31, 2018, Charter served a total of 134,000 mobile lines.

SMB customer relationships grew by 41,000 during the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to growth of 39,000 during the fourth quarter of 2017. SMB PSUs increased 81,000, compared to 85,000 during the fourth quarter of 2017. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 1.8 million SMB customer relationships and 3.2 million SMB PSUs. Enterprise PSUs grew by 5,000 during the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to growth of 10,000 during the fourth quarter of 2017. As of December 31, 2018, Charter had 248,000 enterprise PSUs.

Revenue

Fourth quarter revenues rose 5.9% year-over-year to $11.2 billion, driven by growth in Internet, advertising, video and commercial revenues. Excluding advertising revenue, which benefited from political spend in the fourth quarter of 2018 and mobile, revenue grew 3.9% year-over-year.

Video revenues totaled $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter, an increase of 3.4% compared to prior year period. Video revenue growth was driven by annual rate adjustments, promotional rolloff and higher bundled revenue allocation relating to the launch of Spectrum pricing and packaging in Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House.

Internet revenues grew 7.1%, compared to the year-ago quarter, to $3.9 billion, driven by growth in Internet customers during the last year, promotional rolloff and rate adjustments.

Voice revenues totaled $515 million in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 12.3% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, driven by value-based pricing, lower bundled revenue allocation relating to the launch of Spectrum pricing and packaging in Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House, and a decline in voice customers over the last twelve months.

Commercial revenues rose to $1.6 billion, an increase of 4.5% over the prior year period, driven by enterprise revenue growth of 5.7% and SMB revenue growth of 3.6%. Fourth quarter 2018 commercial revenue growth was lower than fourth quarter 2018 commercial customer relationship growth, given the migration of Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House commercial customers to more attractively priced Spectrum pricing and packaging for both SMB and enterprise services.

Fourth quarter advertising sales revenues of $562 million increased 34.1% compared to the year-ago quarter, driven by higher political revenue. Fourth quarter mobile revenue totaled $89 million.

Operating Costs and Expenses

Fourth quarter total operating costs and expenses increased by $446 million, or 6.7% year-over-year, and 3.6% when excluding fourth quarter mobile costs.

Fourth quarter programming expense increased by $147 million, or 5.5% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, reflecting contractual programming increases and renewals, partly offset by lower video customers.

Regulatory, connectivity and produced content expenses increased by $60 million, or 11.8% year-over-year, primarily driven by higher franchise and regulatory fees, sports and news costs and the Company's adoption of FASB's ASU 2014-09 as of January 1, 2018.

Costs to service customers decreased by $15 million, or 0.8% year-over-year, despite year-over-year residential and SMB customer growth of 3.5%. The year-over-year decrease in costs to service customers was primarily the result of a decrease in bad debt.

Marketing expenses decreased by $18 million, or 2.3% year-over-year.

Other expenses increased by $61 million, or 7.0% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 driven by higher advertising sales, software costs, property tax and insurance costs and costs related to the launch of Charter's Spectrum 1 News channel in Los Angeles.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, mobile costs were comprised of launch costs, device costs and service and operating costs totaling $211 million.

Adjusted EBITDA

Fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $4.2 billion grew by 4.6% year-over-year, reflecting revenue growth and operating expense growth of 5.9% and 6.7%, respectively. Excluding mobile revenue and mobile operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2018, Adjusted EBITDA grew by 7.6% year-over-year.

Net Income Attributable to Charter Shareholders

Net income attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $296 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. The year-over-year decrease in net income was primarily driven by a GAAP tax benefit from a reduction in the deferred tax liability as a result of Federal tax reform in 2017 offset by higher Adjusted EBITDA and lower deprecation and amortization costs.

Net income per basic common share attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $1.31 in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to $39.66 during the same period last year. The decrease was primarily the result of the factors described above offset by a 5.7% decrease in weighted average common shares outstanding versus the prior year period.

Capital Expenditures

Property, plant and equipment expenditures totaled $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $2.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2017, primarily driven by a decline in CPE and scalable infrastructure spending. The decrease in CPE spending was mostly driven by lower set-top box purchases given a year-over-year decline in the pace of migration of Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House customers to Spectrum pricing and packaging and a decline in all-digital activity. The decrease in scalable infrastructure spending was related to more consistent timing of in-year spend. Support capital declined due to lower back office systems spend, timing of vehicle purchases and lower facilities improvement, partly offset by $99 million of support capital spending related to Spectrum Mobile. Fourth quarter capital expenditures included $28 million of all-digital costs and $106 million of mobile costs.  

Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow

During the fourth quarter of 2018, net cash flows from operating activities totaled $3.2 billion, compared to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. The year-over-year decline in net cash flows from operating activities was primarily due to a smaller working capital benefit and higher cash interest, partly offset by higher Adjusted EBITDA and lower severance-related expenses.

Consolidated free cash flow for the fourth quarter of 2018 totaled $885 million, compared to $1.2 billion during the same period last year. The decrease was driven by lower net cash flows from operating activities and a smaller increase in accrued capital expenditures in the fourth quarter of 2018 versus the prior year quarter, partly offset by lower capital expenditures. Excluding the impact of mobile revenue, expenses, capital expenditures and working capital from devices, fourth quarter 2018 free cash flow totaled $1.2 billion.

Liquidity & Financing

As of December 31, 2018, total principal amount of debt was $72.0 billion and Charter's credit facilities provided approximately $2.8 billion of additional liquidity in excess of Charter's $551 million cash position.

In January 2019, Charter Communications Operating, LLC ("CCO") and Charter Communications Operating Capital Corp. issued $1.25 billion of 5.050% senior secured notes due 2029 and $750 million of 5.750% senior secured notes due 2048 (collectively, the "Notes"). Charter intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the Notes for general corporate purposes, including to fund potential buybacks of Class A common stock of Charter or common units of Charter Holdings and to repay certain indebtedness, including to repurchase, redeem or repay at maturity Time Warner Cable, LLC's 8.750% senior notes due 2019 and/or to repay a portion of the outstanding balance under CCO's revolving credit facility.

In January 2019, Charter Operating entered into an amendment to its Credit Agreement raising an additional $1.7 billion term loan A-3 and increasing revolving loan capacity to $4.75 billion from $4.0 billion, as well as extending the maturities on a portion of the term loan A-2 and a portion of the revolving loan to 2024.

Share Repurchases

During the three months ended December 31, 2018, Charter purchased approximately 4.3 million shares of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $1.4 billion.

Revenue

For the year ended December 31, 2018, revenues rose to $43.6 billion, 4.9% higher than in 2017 driven by continued growth in Internet, video, commercial and advertising revenues. Excluding advertising revenue, which benefited from political spend in the fourth quarter of 2018 and mobile revenue, revenue grew 4.2% year-over-year.

Operating Costs and Expenses

Operating costs and expenses totaled $27.6 billion in 2018, an increase of $1.3 billion, or 4.9% compared to the year-ago period, primarily driven by an increase in programming costs, and grew 3.6% year-over-year when excluding mobile costs.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA totaled $16.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018, an increase of 5.0% compared to 2017, reflecting revenue growth and operating cost and expense growth of 4.9% each.  Excluding mobile revenue and mobile operating expenses in 2018, Adjusted EBITDA grew by 6.5% year-over-year.

Net Income Attributable to Charter Shareholders

Net income attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $1.2 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to $9.9 billion in 2017. The year-over-year decrease in net income was primarily related to a GAAP tax benefit from a reduction in the deferred tax liability as a result of Federal tax reform in December 2017 and higher interest expense offset by higher Adjusted EBITDA and lower depreciation and amortization expense. Net income per basic common share attributable to Charter shareholders totaled $5.29 for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to $38.55 during the same period last year.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures totaled $9.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to $8.7 billion in 2017. The increase was primarily the result of integration-related spending, including product improvements and mobile-related systems and facilities spend. Capital expenditures for the year ended December 31, 2018 included $344 million of all-digital costs and $242 million of mobile costs.

We currently expect capital expenditures, excluding capital expenditures related to mobile, to be approximately $7 billion in 2019, versus $8.9 billion in 2018. Our expectation for lower capital expenditures in 2019 versus 2018, is primarily driven by our expectation for lower customer premise equipment spend with the completion of our all-digital conversion, lower scalable infrastructure spend with the completion of the roll-out of DOCSIS 3.1 technology across our footprint and lower support capital spend with the substantial completion of the integration of Legacy TWC and Legacy Bright House.

Cash Flow & Free Cash Flow

In 2018, net cash flows from operating activities totaled $11.8 billion, compared to $12.0 billion in 2017. The year-over-year decrease in net cash flows from operating activities was primarily due to an unfavorable change in working capital in 2018 versus a working capital benefit in 2017 and higher cash paid for interest, partly offset by higher Adjusted EBITDA.

Free cash flow for the year ended December 31, 2018 was $2.2 billion, compared to $4.1 billion during the same period last year. The decrease was due to lower cash flow from operating activities, higher cash payments for capital expenditures due to both a higher level of in-year capital expenditures and a lower amount of associated payables at December 31, 2018. Excluding the impact of mobile revenue, expenses, capital expenditures and working capital from devices, free cash flow for the year ended December 31, 2018 totaled $2.8 billion.

Share Repurchases

For the year ended December 31, 2018, Charter purchased approximately 16.2 million shares of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for approximately $5.0 billion.

Conference Call

Charter will host a conference call on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) related to the contents of this release.

The conference call will be webcast live via the Company's investor relations website at ir.charter.com. The call will be archived under the "Financial Information" section two hours after completion of the call. Participants should go to the webcast link no later than 10 minutes prior to the start time to register.

Those participating via telephone should dial 866-919-0894 no later than 10 minutes prior to the call. International participants should dial 706-679-9379. The conference ID code for the call is 4699068.

A replay of the call will be available at 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406 beginning two hours after the completion of the call through the end of business on February 14, 2019. The conference ID code for the replay is 4699068.

Additional Information Available on Website

The information in this press release should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and footnotes contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which will be posted on the "Financial Information" section of our investor relations website at ir.charter.com, when it is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A slide presentation to accompany the conference call and a trending schedule containing historical customer and financial data will also be available in the "Financial Information" section.

Use of Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow Information

The company uses certain measures that are not defined by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") to evaluate various aspects of its business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are non-GAAP financial measures and should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, consolidated net income and net cash flows from operating activities reported in accordance with GAAP. These terms, as defined by Charter, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are reconciled to consolidated net income and net cash flows from operating activities, respectively, in the Addendum to this release.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as consolidated net income plus net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock compensation expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, (gain) loss on financial instruments, other expense, net and other operating (income) expenses, such as merger and restructuring costs, special charges and (gain) loss on sale or retirement of assets. As such, it eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of the Company's businesses as well as other non-cash or special items, and is unaffected by the Company's capital structure or investment activities. However, this measure is limited in that it does not reflect the periodic costs of certain capitalized tangible and intangible assets used in generating revenues and the cash cost of financing. These costs are evaluated through other financial measures.

Free cash flow is defined as net cash flows from operating activities, less capital expenditures and changes in accrued expenses related to capital expenditures.

Management and Charter's board of directors use Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow to assess Charter's performance and its ability to service its debt, fund operations and make additional investments with internally generated funds. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA generally correlates to the leverage ratio calculation under the Company's credit facilities or outstanding notes to determine compliance with the covenants contained in the facilities and notes (all such documents have been previously filed with the the SEC). For the purpose of calculating compliance with leverage covenants, the Company uses Adjusted EBITDA, as presented, excluding certain expenses paid by its operating subsidiaries to other Charter entities. The Company's debt covenants refer to these expenses as management fees, which were $274 million and $271 million for the three months ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and were $1.1 billion for both years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017.

Adjusted EBITDA-Cable is defined as Adjusted EBITDA less mobile revenues plus mobile operating costs and expenses. Free cash flow-Cable is defined as free cash flow plus net cash outflows from operating activities and capital expenditures related to mobile. Management and Charter's board of directors use Adjusted EBITDA-Cable and free cash flow-Cable to provide management and investors a more meaningful year over year perspective on the financial and operational performance and trends of our core cable business without the impact of the revenue, costs and capital expenditures in the initial funding period to grow a new product line as well as the negative working capital impacts from the timing of device-related cash flows when we provide the handset or tablet to customers pursuant to equipment installment plans.

About Charter

Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) is a leading broadband communications company and the second largest cable operator in the United States. Charter provides a full range of advanced residential broadband services, including Spectrum TV^® programming, Spectrum Internet^®, Spectrum Voice^®, and Spectrum Mobile™. Under the Spectrum Business^® brand, Charter provides scalable, and cost-effective broadband communications solutions to small and medium-sized business organizations, including Internet access, business telephone, and TV services. Through the Spectrum Enterprise brand, Charter is a national provider of scalable, fiber-based technology solutions serving many of America's largest businesses and communications service providers. Charter's advertising sales and production services are sold under the Spectrum Reach^® brand. Charter's news and sports networks are operated under the Spectrum Networks brand. More information about Charter can be found at newsroom.charter.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding, among other things, our plans, strategies and prospects, both business and financial.  Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations as reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or realize these plans, intentions or expectations.  Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without limitation, the factors described under "Risk Factors" from time to time in our filings with the SEC.  Many of the forward-looking statements contained in this communication may be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "should," "planned," "will," "may," "intend," "estimated," "aim," "on track," "target," "opportunity," "tentative," "positioning," "designed," "create," "predict," "project," "initiatives," "seek," "would," "could," "continue," "ongoing," "upside," "increases" and "potential," among others.  Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this communication are set forth in our annual report on Form 10-K, and in other reports or documents that we file from time to time with the SEC, and include, but are not limited to:

• our ability to sustain and grow revenues and cash flow from operations by offering video, Internet, voice, mobile, advertising and other services to residential and commercial customers, to adequately meet the customer experience demands in our service areas and to maintain and grow our customer base, particularly in the face of increasingly aggressive competition, the need for innovation and the related capital expenditures;
• the impact of competition from other market participants, including but not limited to incumbent telephone companies, direct broadcast satellite ("DBS") operators, wireless broadband and telephone providers, digital subscriber line ("DSL") providers, fiber to the home providers, video provided over the Internet by (i) market participants that have not historically competed in the multichannel video business, (ii) traditional multichannel video distributors, and (iii) content providers that have historically licensed cable networks to multichannel video distributors, and providers of advertising over the Internet;
• our ability to efficiently and effectively integrate acquired operations;
• the effects of governmental regulation on our business including costs, disruptions and possible limitations on operating flexibility related to, and our ability to comply with, regulatory conditions applicable to us as a result of the Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks, LLC Transactions;
• general business conditions, economic uncertainty or downturn, unemployment levels and the level of activity in the housing sector;
• our ability to obtain programming at reasonable prices or to raise prices to offset, in whole or in part, the effects of higher programming costs (including retransmission consents);
• our ability to develop and deploy new products and technologies including mobile products and any other consumer services and service platforms;
• any events that disrupt our networks, information systems or properties and impair our operating activities or our reputation;
• the ability to retain and hire key personnel;
• the availability and access, in general, of funds to meet our debt obligations prior to or when they become due and to fund our operations and necessary capital expenditures, either through (i) cash on hand, (ii) free cash flow, or (iii) access to the capital or credit markets; and
• our ability to comply with all covenants in our indentures and credit facilities, any violation of which, if not cured in a timely manner, could trigger a default of our other obligations under cross-default provisions.

All forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.  We are under no duty or obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this communication.