Liberty Latin America said Wednesday that it has agreed to combine its VTR mobile operations in Chile with America Móvil’s Claro Chile in a 50-50 joint venture.

According to Liberty Latin America, VTR has about 3 million mobile subscribers in Chile while Claro Chile has about 6.5 million customers. The combination, the companies said, will create a business with greater scale, a more diversified product line and a more flexible capital structure that will enable it to expand its fiber footprint and offer 5G service. By 2025, the JV said it expects its fixed network to pass 6 million homes with the majority having access to fiber-to-the-home infrastructure.

Liberty Latin America said the JV will have about $180 million in synergies, mostly related to network and operating efficiencies, 80% of which are expected to be achieved within three years of completing the deal. The transaction should be completed in the second half of 2022. 

This is the second deal Liberty Latin America has reached with America Móvil in the past two weeks. On Sept. 15, Liberty’s Cable & Wireless Panama subsidiary agreed to buy America Móvil's Panama operations — Claro Panama — for about $200 million. 

Liberty said that executive leadership for the JV will be agreed upon prior to the close of the transaction, with the board consisting of eight members, four from each of Liberty and American Móvil. The role of chairperson will rotate between the shareholders and certain actions of the JV will be subject to the consent of both parties.

Liberty Latin America said Wednesday that its 49%-owned subsidiary Cable & Wireless Panamá S.A. has agreed to purchase Claro Panamá, a division of América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V. in an all-cash deal that values the business at about $200 million.

Claro Panamá has about 760,000 mobile subscribers and generated about $157 million in revenue in fiscal 2020. In a press release, Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said the deal highlights the company’s commitment to its Panamanian network.

“The integrated business will operate over a network with extensive coverage and invest to deliver innovative mobile products and services for Panamanian consumers and B2B customers, including via leading technologies such as 5G,” Nair said in the release. “We at Liberty Latin America have established our group Operations Center in Panama and see the country as an important digital hub for the region, which we expect to drive growing demand for our full suite of mobile and fixed connectivity solutions. The valuation for the acquisition is consistent with our disciplined approach towards M&A and will be free cash flow accretive on a per share basis.”

Also Read: Liberty Latin America Restructures Executive Team

The purchase, including fees and expenses, will be financed using cash and incremental borrowings at Cable & Wireless Panamá. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

Lion Tree served as an adviser to Cable & Wireless Panamá on the transaction.

Liberty Latin America (LiLA) said Monday that it has restructured its executive team, removing the role of chief operating officer, allowing leaders of its individual units -- Cable & Wireless, VTR and Liberty Puerto Rico -- to report directly to company CEO Balan Nair. In addition, LiLA said it has added two new positions to the executive team -- SVP, south central markets and chief customer officer. 

“Last year, we learned so much about ourselves and our business, and we have been evaluating how we operate, how we are structured, how we delight our customers, and how we continue to evolve in a changing environment,” Nair said in a press release. “Our new structure will bring an even greater focus on our customers, provide fresh perspectives in different areas of the business, and importantly, give our leaders the opportunity for growth.”

Liberty Latin America was spun off from Liberty Global in 2018. The company operates in more than 20 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean under brands such as VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil, BTC, UTS and Cabletica.

Nair added that Liberty Latin America is actively recruiting a chief customer officer who will align the company’s customer focused initiatives and lead its existing digital, customer care, and programming teams.”

Guillermo Ponce, previously CEO of VTR, the company’s Chilean operation, has been named SVP, south-central markets, covering Liberty Latin America’s Panama and Costa Rica operations. Ponce has more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications industry. Taking over as general manager of VTR will be LiLA chief technology officer Vivek Khemka, who will relocate from LiLA headquarters in Denver to VTR HQ in Santiago, Chile. He joined Liberty Latin America in 2018. As part of that change, LiLA said it also is searching for a new CTO. In the interim,  chief information officer Christine Weber will assume day-to-day CTO responsibilities. 

Former LiLA chief operating officer Betzalel Kenigsztein has been named executive director and general manager of Cable & Wireless Panama, replacing Julio Spiegel. Spiegel will take a new role within Liberty Latin America as VP, government affairs reporting to the general counsel.

Liberty Latin America said it has completed its purchase of wireless and wireline assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands from AT&T on Oct. 31 in a deal valued at $1.95 billion.

Liberty Latin America first announced the deal in October 2019. Last month it said it had received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for the transaction on the condition it divest of certain B2B assets in Puerto Rico.  

"By creating the leading integrated provider, we will deliver added value to customers through expanded product offerings, more resilient infrastructure, and world-class customer service levels,”  said Balan Nair, president and CEO of Liberty Latin America,  in a press release. “By completing this transaction, we continue to demonstrate our ability to execute on our disciplined inorganic growth strategy. We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us and are already working hard on our integration plan to drive value for our customers, our shareholders and our employees.”

Liberty Latin America said it has received U.S. Department of Justice approval of its purchase of AT&T wireless and wireline assets in the Caribbean, agreeing to divest of certain business-to-business operations in Puerto Rico.

Liberty Latin America agreed last October to purchase AT&T’s wireless and wireline assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for $1.95 billion. Obtaining DOJ approval was contingent on the deal closing.

To meet the conditions in the DOJ approval, Liberty Latin America said in a press release that it has entered into an agreement to divest part of its B2B operations in Puerto Rico. This divestiture is expected to close promptly. Liberty Latin America said it expects to close the AT&T transaction on Oct. 31.

Under terms of the agreement, AT&T said it will retain its FirstNet first responders network responsibilities and relationships as well as its DirecTV satellite television and certain global business customer relationships. After the deal closes, Liberty Latin America said it will support AT&T’s FirstNet build in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Liberty Latin America has agreed to purchase AT&T’s wireless and wireline assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for $1.95 billion in cash, the company said Wednesday.

Liberty Latin America, which was spun off from John Malone’s LibertyGlobal as an independent publicly traded company in 2018, already has an extensive presence in Puerto Rico. This deal, according to Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair, will allow the company to expand its product portfolio to include a popular post-paid mobile offering and increase its distribution channels on the island.

News of the deal boosted Liberty Latin America stock was up nearly 3% in early trading Wednesday to $17.06 per share.

“The combination of AT&T’s leading mobile businesses with Liberty Puerto Rico’s leading high-speed broadband and TV business will create a strong and competitive integrated communications player, with a combined annual revenue of over $1.2 billion in Puerto Rico and $4.6 billion across LLA,” Nair said in a press release. “By continuing to invest in digital infrastructure, innovation, 5G networks and a friendly customer service experience, we are confident that this new combination will support our long-term growth profile and that this deal will be free cash flow accretive on a per share basis.”

The sale should also serve to calm some investors who had been advocating for AT&T to sell off non-core assets to help pay down its $80 billion in debt. In September, investor Elliott Management called for the company to sell off its DirecTV and WarnerMedia units to focus on its core wireless business. While this deal is not early as extreme, it shows that the company is at least paying attention.

The assets involved in the deal include AT&T’s consumer mobile and B2B services in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but exclude its DirecTV customers in those areas. In Puerto Rico, which Liberty said accounts for about 90% of the total assets being acquired, AT&T is the top provider of mobile services, and has agreed to support Liberty Latin America for up to 36 months following the closing of the deal to enable an efficient transition.

Liberty Latin America will finance the transaction through a combination of $2.2 billion in borrowings on the combined assets and Liberty Puerto Rico (including refinancing $922.5 million in existing term loans at Liberty Puerto Rico) and the remaining $750 million from Liberty Latin America’s committed liquidity of $2.0 billion on June 30.

Liontree LLC and Credit Suisse are acting as financial advisers to Liberty Latin America on the transaction. 

TiVo used the occasion of the IBC Show in Amsterdam today to announce two new international customers wins, as well as detail the splitting of its products and IP licensing business.

For starters, the vendor said that Vodafone Group is deploying TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery technology as part of its Vodafone TV service in Portugal. In fact, TiVo said Portugal will be the first country to use its new “Intelligent Voice Search” feature, a natural language solution that enables user to find content by speaking into their remotes.

Separately, TiVo announced that Liberty Latin America will use its Next-Gen Platform, starting in Puerto Rico. TiVo's Next-Gen Platform offers a range of products powered by our cloud-based TiVo service.

“TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform is unique in giving us the flexibility to introduce new, tailored video products and services at scale to serve our different customer segments and markets, while staying ahead of our competitors,” said Vivek Khemka, senior VP and chief technology and product officer for Liberty Latin America. “We are committed to bringing the latest entertainment innovations to our customers and TiVo is the best partner for us to achieve that with.”

In an interview with Bloomberg at IBC earlier this week, Dave Shull, who joined on as TiVo’s CEO in May, outlined plans to split up the San Jose, California technology company.

Shull said he wants to split off TiVo’s patent business by the first half of next year, while having that spinoff assume the bulk of TiVo’s debt and tax credit. The products business—which just made the aforementioned deal announcements at IBC—would carry on with the TiVo name. 

Liberty Latin America said it has reached an agreement to purchase 87.5% of United Telecommunication Services, a fixed and mobile services provider to several Caribbean nations in an all-cash transaction. The deal values UTS at $189 million on a cash-and debt-free basis.

UTS provides fixed and mobile services to Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Bonaire, St. Barths, St. Eustatius and Saba. The agreement to acquire represents all shares held in UTS by the Government of Curaçao.

“We are excited to welcome UTS to Liberty Latin America,” Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said in a press release. “By consolidating these operations in Curaçao, we will form the largest full-service converged telecom operator on the island and create a true national champion, bringing world-class connectivity solutions to our customers on both fixed and mobile networks. In addition, through this acquisition, we are expanding our footprint in the region, allowing us to further leverage our operational scale and unique sub-sea network.”

UTS provides video, broadband internet, fixed-line telephony and mobile LTE services to residential and business customers, and as of Dec. 31 served 101,000 fixed subscribers and 134,000 mobile subscribers, the majority of which were located in Curaçao.

Liberty Latin America said it intends to finance the acquisition of UTS through existing liquidity, including incremental revolver drawings at C&W. The transaction is expected to be completed in the coming days.

Liberty Latin America was spun off from Liberty Global in January 2018. 

Liberty Global debuted its Latin American tracking stock on July 2 to mixed results, with shares of the company – officially called Liberty Latin America and Caribbean Group (LiLAC) – dipping more than 10% in early trading.

Liberty Global announced plans to spin off its Latin America assets – including its 100% interests in Chilean-based VTR GlobalCom SpA and VTR Wireless SpA and its 60% interest in Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico LLC – back in October as a way to unlock the value of those assets. The stock, traded over the NASDAQ Exchange under the symbol “LILA,” opened at $56.10 per share but later lost ground, trading as low as $44.01 each early in the day (down  21.6% from its opening and 27% from the $60 price at the close of its last day of when-issued trading). The stock closed on July 2 at $49.61 per share, down 11.6% ($6.49) from its opening price.

The tax-free exchange involved Liberty Global shareholders receiving one LiLAC share for every 20 Liberty Global shares they own. Liberty Global said it distributed about 12.6 million LiLAC shares.

“The launch of our LiLAC tracking stock is an exciting event, which we believe will enhance long-term equity value for shareholders,” said Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries in a statement. “Our cable operations in Chile and Puerto Rico are two of the most advanced platforms in the region. Both businesses have consistently delivered strong financial results and should continue to generate mid- to high-single-digit rebased OCF growth going forward. LiLAC is also uniquely positioned to exploit the highly fragmented landscape characterized by low broadband and pay TV penetrations.”

LiLAC is the second new cable stock to debut in as many days. On July 1, Cable One, the Phoenix-based cale operator, was spun off from former parent Graham Holdings. It too had a mixed day, opening at $450.48 per share but falling in later trading to close at $399 each. The stock was up slightly to $401 each in early trading July 2, before closing at $399.71 per share.