Millicom Provides Updated Outlook During Investor Meeting in New York

LUXEMBOURG, Jan. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Millicom's common shares began trading on NASDAQ in the U.S. today under ticker symbol "TIGO". To coincide with this important milestone, the company is hosting a meeting with investors and financial analysts to discuss its strategy and outlook. Presenters include: Mauricio Ramos, CEO; Tim Pennington, CFO; Esteban Iriarte, COO Latin America; Xavier Rocoplan, Chief Technology and Information Officer; Rachel Samrén, Chief External Affairs Officer; HL Rogers, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, among others. Presentation materials referenced during the event are available on the company's website at www.millicom.com.     

Mauricio Ramos, CEO of Millicom said: "We are delighted to be at the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York today to see Millicom return to the U.S. market and start trading under the new ticker symbol "TIGO", our primary operating brand. This underscores the transformation of Millicom into one of the leading fixed mobile convergent telecom operators in Latin America.    

While we are still a few weeks away from completing and reporting our Q4 and full year 2018 results on February 7, 2019, we wanted to share some preliminary information with you now. Our final results may differ somewhat from these preliminary estimates.                  

In our Latin America segment, which includes our Guatemala and Honduras joint ventures, we ended 2018 with 32.4 million B2C Mobile customers, including more than 10 million on our 4G network, having added approximately 3.2 million 4G customers during the year. In our Cable business, we added 1.3 million homes passed to our hybrid fiber-cable network, taking the total homes passed to 10.2 million; and we connected more than 400,000 additional homes to our HFC network, taking the total number of HFC customer relationships to 2.7 million.

With respect to our financial performance, the fourth quarter was a continuation of the good progress made throughout the year, and we expect to close the full year 2018 slightly above the top end of our guidance range of 2% to 4% for Latam service revenue growth[1]. Latam EBITDA growth is expected to be within the guidance range, with the full year 2018 ending slightly above 3%. As usual, these growth rates are expressed in constant currency terms to exclude the impact of changes in FX and accounting standards. Finally, we expect full year Latam capex will be around $950 million, or $50 million below the $1.0 billion target we had set at the beginning of last year.    

We are starting 2019 with the same momentum we enjoyed in 2018, and we anticipate another solid year marked by the continued expansion of our mobile and fixed high-speed data networks and customer growth. Based on our early assessment of the operating and economic environment, we expect Latam service revenue growth to range between 3% and 5% in 2019, and Latam EBITDA is expected to grow at a faster rate, ranging between 4% and 6%, on a like-for-like basis. Latam capex should be slightly above $1.0 billion, including about $85 million at Cable Onda, which we continue to expect will generate EBITDA of approximately $184 million.

In summary, the investments we have been making in recent years are now paying off; we anticipate faster growth and improved capital efficiency in 2019 compared to 2018, and we are excited about capturing the long-term growth opportunity before us."

[1] All growth rates herein are non-IFRS and are expressed in organic constant currency terms to exclude the effect of changes in foreign exchange rates, the adoption of new accounting standards such as IFRS 15 (in 2018) and IFRS 16 (in 2019), and are proforma for major acquisitions.

Service revenue, EBITDA and capex are non-IFRS measures and are described in greater detail herein under Non-IFRS Financial Measure Descriptions. 

CONTACT:
For further information, please contact
Press:
Vivian Kobeh, Corporate Communications Director
+1-305-476-7352 / +1-305-302-2858
press@millicom.com

Investors:
Michel Morin, VP Investor Relations
+1-305-445-4156                                                                                                           
investors@millicom.com

Mauricio Pinzon, Investor Relations Manager
Tel: +44-20-3249-2460                                                                                                     
investors@millicom.com

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SOURCE Millicom International Cellular