Liberty Latin America Acquires Remaining 40% of Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico
October 17, 2018
Acquisition of Minority Stake from Searchlight Capital Partners
DENVER, Colorado–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Liberty
Latin America Ltd. (“Liberty Latin America” or “LLA”) (NASDAQ: LILA
and LILAK, OTC Link: LILAB) today announced that it has acquired the
remaining 40% stake in Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico (“Liberty
Puerto Rico” or “LCPR”) from funds affiliated with Searchlight Capital
Partners, L.P. (“Searchlight”) in exchange for 9,500,000 Liberty Latin
America Class C shares (LILAK). Following the acquisition, Liberty Latin
America owns 100% of Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico. The transaction
is expected to be accretive on a free cash flow per share basis for LLA
shareholders.
Balan Nair, President and CEO of Liberty Latin America, commented, “We
are pleased to announce this transaction, which reflects the confidence
in our Puerto Rican management team and affirms our commitment to Puerto
Rico as our business there recovers strongly following a difficult
period for the island. At the same time, this further cements our strong
relationship with Searchlight and I look forward to continuing to work
alongside Eric as a member of our board.”
Eric Zinterhofer, Founding Partner of Searchlight, said, “I want to
thank CEO Naji Khoury and the entire team at Liberty Puerto Rico for
their dedication in transforming the company from a regional cable
operator to the island-wide provider of market-leading broadband, pay TV
and voice services in Puerto Rico. We are proud of the team’s tireless
effort and leadership in rebuilding Liberty Puerto Rico’s network after
Hurricane Maria devastated the island. We feel privileged to have been
Liberty’s partner in Puerto Rico, and we look forward to being a
long-term shareholder of Liberty Latin America.”
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
including statements regarding the benefits of the transaction and other
information and statements that are not historical fact. These
forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include
factors that are outside of our control, such as the risks detailed from
time to time in Liberty Latin America’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its most recently filed Form 10-K and
Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of
this release. Liberty Latin America expressly disclaims any obligation
or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any
forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in
Liberty Latin America’s expectations with regard thereto or any change
in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based.
About Liberty Latin America
Liberty Latin America is a leading telecommunications company operating
in over 20 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean under the
consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil, BTC and Cabletica. The
communications and entertainment services that we offer to our
residential and business customers in the region include digital video,
broadband internet, telephony and mobile services. Our business products
and services include enterprise-grade connectivity, data center, hosting
and managed solutions, as well as information technology solutions with
customers ranging from small and medium enterprises to international
companies and governmental agencies. In addition, Liberty Latin America
operates a sub-sea and terrestrial fiber optic cable network that
connects over 40 markets in the region.
Liberty Latin America has three separate classes of common shares, which
are traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbols “LILA”
(Class A) and “LILAK” (Class C), and on the OTC link under the symbol
“LILAB” (Class B).
For more information, please visit www.lla.com.
About Searchlight
Searchlight is a global private investment firm with offices in New
York, London and Toronto. Searchlight seeks to invest in businesses
where their long-term capital and strategic support accelerate value
creation for all stakeholders. For more information, please visit www.searchlightcap.com.
Contacts
Liberty Latin America Ltd.
Investor
Relations:
Kunal Patel, +1 786 274 7552
or
Media
Relations:
Claudia Restrepo, +1 786 218 0407