Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA) executives highlighted mobile subscriber momentum, improving profitability, and ongoing storm recovery efforts during the company’s full-year 2025 investor call, while also outlining priorities for 2026 that include fixed-mobile convergence initiatives, cost discipline, and continued investment in subsea and 5G infrastructure.
2025 highlights: mobile growth, profitability gains, and capital discipline
CEO Balan Nair said the business “performed very well in 2025,” pointing to more than 225,000 mobile postpaid net additions across the group. He attributed the growth notably to Costa Rica and to fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) efforts and prepaid-to-postpaid migrations. Nair also noted that the quarter included a positive net add contribution from Puerto Rico for the first time since its customer migration.
The company also emphasized capital spending discipline. Nair said property and equipment (P&E) additions were 14% of revenue in 2025, in line with prior intentions and down 2 percentage points from the prior year. CFO Chris Noyes added that total P&E additions were $640 million in 2025 versus $725 million in 2024. With adjusted OIBDA expanding and P&E additions falling, management reported adjusted OIBDA less P&E additions increased 27% for the year to $1.1 billion, or 24% of revenue.
Fourth-quarter and full-year financial performance
Noyes said fourth-quarter revenue was $1.2 billion, reflecting 1% year-over-year rebased growth, supported by double-digit growth at Liberty Networks and Cable & Wireless Panama, and partially offset by declines in Liberty Caribbean and Liberty Puerto Rico. On a full-year basis, revenue was slightly down on a rebased basis to $4.4 billion.
Adjusted OIBDA was $451 million in Q4 and $1.7 billion for 2025. Noyes said adjusted OIBDA grew 8% in Q4 and 9% for the year on a rebased basis, but both periods were adversely affected by $27 million related to Hurricane Melissa. He also cited a roughly 300 basis point improvement in adjusted OIBDA margins in 2025 driven by cost control and efficiency, and said management expects those actions to continue benefiting 2026 results.
On cash flow, Noyes reported adjusted free cash flow before partner distributions of $278 million in Q4 and $150 million for the full year, a 29% year-over-year increase. He said the improvement was driven primarily by the higher adjusted OIBDA less P&E additions, partly offset by working capital movements.
Segment commentary: hurricane impacts, Panama strength, and network growth
Liberty Caribbean results reflected the storm in Jamaica. Noyes said Liberty Caribbean posted $356 million in Q4 revenue and $153 million in Q4 adjusted OIBDA, with year-over-year declines “entirely due to Hurricane Melissa.” He quantified the impact as a $20 million revenue decline and a $27 million adjusted OIBDA decline in Jamaica in the last two months of the quarter, while emphasizing the segment delivered 7% adjusted OIBDA rebased growth for full-year 2025. Management cautioned that the next quarters will be financially challenging in Jamaica, with difficult comparisons until the company laps the hurricane impact in Q4.
In Cable & Wireless Panama, management described accelerating postpaid momentum and improving B2B trends. Nair highlighted that Panama signed new B2B wins, including a contract with Panama’s Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) to provide high-speed internet to public schools nationwide. Nair said B2B rebased revenue growth in Panama was 1% for the full year, driven largely by the fourth quarter, which posted 24% year-over-year growth. Noyes added that government-related projects helped C&W Panama deliver double-digit rebased growth in both revenue and adjusted OIBDA in Q4, reporting $230 million of revenue and $94 million of adjusted OIBDA.
Liberty Networks delivered double-digit growth. Nair said wholesale revenue grew 6% on a rebased basis in 2025, and that underlying wholesale growth would have been 12% excluding non-cash IRU headwinds. Noyes reported Liberty Networks generated $129 million in Q4 revenue and $75 million in Q4 adjusted OIBDA, up 14% and 21% year over year on a rebased basis, aided in part by the El Salvador build and continued ramp in wholesale infrastructure.
Jamaica recovery and expected 2026 storm-related cash flow impact
Nair said the company will deploy $81 million in net proceeds from its weather derivatives program as part of its 2026 investment focus in Jamaica. He said the mobile network recovered quickly and was carrying more data traffic than prior to the hurricane, with improving trends continuing through early February. He noted that Jamaica’s mobile base is largely prepaid, and said the improving KPIs translated into higher prepaid and overall residential mobile revenue in Q4.
On fixed services, Nair said the fixed network was “materially more damaged” and that the company removed 133,000 home passes from its count where it does not foresee restoring fixed service in the near term. He said more than 75% of fixed broadband customers are back online, though recovery varies by geographic zone. Management’s target is to be back close to pre-hurricane levels of profitability in Jamaica by the end of 2026.
Noyes said that while the company saw financial impacts in Q4, “a substantial amount of the adverse impact, including a large portion of the recovery investment, is expected to occur in 2026.” He said the company generally expects the 2026 adjusted free cash flow impact from the storm to be “in the neighborhood of $100 million,” with an operating goal to be near pre-hurricane run-rate levels by year-end and positioned for a fuller recovery in 2027.
Puerto Rico stabilization, capital structure, and shareholder return comments
Management described Puerto Rico as stabilizing, while acknowledging continued competitive and financial pressure. Nair said Puerto Rico achieved its first quarter of positive postpaid mobile adds since the migration, helped by commercial efforts including the launch of Liberty Mix and the completion of the Boost MVNO customer migration onto Liberty’s network. Nair called the Boost customers “high ARPU prepaid customers,” and said retaining them while removing wholesale costs was an important milestone.
However, management said Puerto Rico’s full-year revenue declined. Nair stated Puerto Rico recorded a 6% revenue decline for the year, driven largely by a 6% decline in residential mobile revenue, while B2B revenue declined 16% and residential fixed fell 1% (supported by early-2025 price increases). Noyes said Puerto Rico delivered $301 million of Q4 revenue (a 4% rebased decline year over year), while adjusted OIBDA was $89 million, reflecting double-digit rebased growth year over year due to cost structure improvements, normalized customer service levels, and improved collections and bad debt expense.
On leverage and liquidity, Noyes said the company ended 2025 with $8.4 billion of total debt and liquidity of $800 million in cash plus $900 million available under credit lines. Consolidated net leverage was 4.3x, an improvement from 2024. He noted Liberty Puerto Rico had $2.9 billion of total debt and reported borrowing group net leverage of nearly 8x, with covenant leverage of restricted subsidiaries at 14x as of Q4 2025. He said Liberty Puerto Rico may need to raise additional liquidity in the near future, though no definitive decisions have been made, and reiterated that management is actively working on a separation of Liberty Puerto Rico and Liberty Latin America.
Asked about shareholder returns, Nair said the company feels confident about the business and suggested that management and the board could make decisions during the year that would “reward” shareholders, while not providing specific timing or details.
About Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA)
Liberty Latin America is a telecommunications company that provides video, broadband internet, telephony and mobile services across Latin America and the Caribbean. The company’s operations span consumer and business markets, offering cable television packages, high-speed broadband connections, fixed-line voice services and wireless data plans. Through its brands, including Flow in several Caribbean territories and VTR in Chile, Liberty Latin America focuses on delivering converged digital solutions designed to meet both residential and enterprise needs.
Formed in 2018 as a spin-off from Liberty Global, Liberty Latin America built its initial footprint by integrating legacy assets acquired from Cable & Wireless Communications and Columbus Communications.
