What Liberty Latin America (LILA) Said on Its Q3 Earnings Call

Key Points

• Margins improved despite softer revenue: Third-quarter revenue fell 2% on a rebased basis to $1.1 billion, while adjusted OIBDA rose 3% to $454 million and the margin expanded 160 basis points to about 41%. Management expects delayed business-project revenue to support a stronger fourth quarter.
• Subscriber growth and pricing supported operations: The company added 56,000 postpaid mobile and broadband subscribers. Price increases, including a 10% hike for nearly all Jamaica customers, have so far caused less churn than in prior rounds.
• Cash flow and buybacks advanced: Adjusted free cash flow was slightly positive for the first nine months, up nearly $140 million year over year, and management expects full-year cash flow to exceed 2025. Liberty Latin America has repurchased more than $150 million of shares in 2026; net leverage was 4.5 times.

Liberty Latin America NASDAQ: LILA reported higher third-quarter adjusted operating earnings despite a decline in rebased revenue, as subscriber gains and cost cuts helped expand margins. Executives said they expect a stronger fourth quarter, supported by business-to-business project revenue and a seasonal improvement in cash flow.

Revenue was $1.1 billion, broadly flat on a reported basis but down 2% on a rebased basis from a year earlier. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA, rose 3% on a rebased basis to $454 million, Chief Financial Officer Chris Noyes said. The adjusted OIBDA margin increased 160 basis points to approximately 41%.

The company added 56,000 postpaid mobile and broadband subscribers during the quarter, an improvement over both the first and second quarters, Chief Executive Officer Balan Nair said. He attributed much of the disconnect between subscriber growth and revenue performance to the timing of business projects, particularly in Panama and on an undersea cable build for the government of El Salvador.

Nair said some Panama contracts expected in the third quarter shifted after an earthquake disrupted government services. “The headwinds in the revenue is really mostly phasing,” he said, adding that the company expects some of the delayed business to land in the fourth quarter.

Cash Flow and Share Repurchases

Adjusted free cash flow before distributions to partners was slightly positive for the first nine months of 2026, an improvement of nearly $140 million from the same period a year earlier, Noyes said. The result included an approximately $120 million negative impact from Liberty Puerto Rico.

Management expects full-year adjusted free cash flow to finish comfortably ahead of 2025, with cash generation typically weighted toward the fourth quarter. Noyes said the company paid down significantly more vendor financing in the third quarter than it had a year earlier. Fourth-quarter cash flow will depend in part on the timing of collections from large government and business projects, he added.

The company has repurchased more than $150 million of common stock so far in 2026, equivalent to nearly 10% of the common shares outstanding at the end of 2025. Nair said he and John Malone had purchased both common and preferred equity, while Noyes said the company intends to remain an opportunistic and disciplined buyer of its shares.

Liberty Latin America ended the quarter with $8.5 billion in total debt, $579 million in cash and $860 million of borrowing capacity. Consolidated net leverage was 4.5 times; excluding Liberty Puerto Rico, it would have been roughly one turn lower, Noyes said.

Subscriber Gains and Pricing

Cable & Wireless Panama added approximately 10,000 broadband and 16,000 postpaid subscribers. Its residential mobile subscription revenue rose 6% year over year and fixed subscription revenue grew 3%, but segment revenue fell 5% to $189 million as government project timing weighed on business revenue.

Liberty Costa Rica added 19,000 postpaid subscribers after a softer second quarter. Its revenue was broadly flat on a rebased basis at $173 million, while adjusted OIBDA rose about 8% to $69 million and its margin expanded roughly 300 basis points to approximately 40%.

Nair said Costa Rica’s margin improvement reflected growth in higher-margin postpaid services, changes in the product mix and cost reductions. He also said a large government project had shifted from the third quarter to the fourth, with some revenue potentially moving into the first quarter of 2027.

Across Liberty Caribbean, the company added about 3,000 postpaid and 4,000 broadband subscribers. Nair said it raised fixed broadband and postpaid mobile prices by 10% for virtually all of its Jamaica customer base early in the fourth quarter.

Companywide, Nair said price increases this year had not produced the level of customer churn seen after previous increases. He attributed that partly to better targeting and said additional price increases were included in the company’s 2027 budgets.

Puerto Rico and Satellite Services

Liberty Puerto Rico added 6,000 postpaid subscribers, its fourth consecutive quarter of positive additions. Revenue declined 3% on a rebased basis to $289 million, while adjusted OIBDA rose 8% to $103 million and the margin expanded to approximately 36%.

Nair said Puerto Rico’s customer satisfaction scores were improving but that more work remained. Asked about a potential spin-off of the unit, he declined to comment on the timing of any structural change, saying the company remained open to discussions with the business’s debt holders.

Liberty Latin America also launched Starlink direct-to-cell services in Panama and Costa Rica during the quarter. Nair described satellite service as complementary to the company’s terrestrial networks, particularly in remote areas where building fiber would be costly. He said Starlink is currently a partner and business customer, although it could become a competitor in the future.

Asked about tariffs, Nair said they had affected the Puerto Rico operation but had less impact elsewhere because the company imports most goods for its other businesses from outside the United States. He identified supply constraints on memory chips and power supplies, driven by U.S. demand for artificial intelligence, as a larger issue.

About Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA)

Liberty Latin America Ltd. NASDAQ: LILA is a telecommunications and connectivity company serving customers across Latin America and the Caribbean. Its operations provide broadband internet, mobile and fixed-line communications, video and entertainment services, and business connectivity solutions to residential, commercial, and government customers.

The company operates through a portfolio of regional businesses and brands, including Liberty and Flow, as well as operations in markets such as Puerto Rico, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and several Caribbean countries.

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