Conference Transcript - LBRDA 2026-05-07

Operator

Welcome to GCI Liberty 2026 First Quarter Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone. As a reminder, this conference will be recorded May 7th. I would now like to turn the call over to Hooper Stevens, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Hooper Stevens, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today for GCI Liberty's first quarter 2026 earnings call. As you know, this call may include certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in the most recent forms 10-K and 10-Q filed by GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and GCI Liberty and Liberty Broadband expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in GCI Liberty or Liberty Broadband's expectations with regard to any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based. On today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for GCI Liberty, including adjusted OIBDA margin and free cash flow. Information regarding the required definitions, along with comparable GAAP metrics and reconciliations for GCI Liberty can be found in the earnings press release issued today, which is available on GCI Liberty's IR website. Speaking on today's call will be Ron Duncan, the CEO of GCI Liberty, and Brian Wendling, GCI Liberty's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer. Also, during Q&A, we will take questions related to Liberty Broadband, should they arise, and we have additional members of GCI and Liberty Broadband Management available to answer questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron Duncan.

Ron Duncan, CEO

Thank you, and good morning. We had an incredibly productive start to the year and delivered solid first quarter results. We continue to execute on our mission of delivering quality connectivity to all Alaskans. At GCI, we recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Quintillion for consideration of $310 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments, reimbursement of up to $50 million for capital expenditures incurred by Quintillion prior to closing, and potential earn-out payments. We are incredibly excited to marry two of Alaska's best networks. This transaction will bring together complementary subsea and terrestrial fiber routes, our extensive rural microwave network, deep operational expertise, and long-term investment under one operating model. It will enhance the scale, resilience, and reach of GCI's statewide network to benefit all Alaskans. We expect the transaction to be accreted to free cash flow in the first year after closing. We announced yesterday that GCI Liberty has invested approximately $107 million to acquire Searchlight Capital Partners' equity interest in Liberty Latin America. We are also in discussions with Dr. John Malone, Chairman of the Board of GCI Liberty and Director Emeritus of Liberty Latin America and certain affiliates to acquire additional shares in Liberty Latin America. We are pleased to begin GCI Liberty's next chapter of growth with this opportunistic investment in Liberty Latin America and are keenly interested in acquiring a more significant equity and voting stake in the company from Dr. Malone and others. Ballon there and his team have done an impressive job of developing LLA into a leading integrated connectivity provider across Latin America and the Caribbean, and we look forward to participating in the growth potential that lies ahead. As part of this evolution, we intend to change our name from GCI Liberty to Liberty Capital corporation in the coming weeks, with no change to our ticker. We are changing our name to reflect our expanded focus at the parent level as we start making investments outside of our core Alaska operating subsidiary. Our Alaska operations will continue under the GCI name and brand. These first steps of strategic change at GCI Liberty represent our focus on augmenting the ways we create value for our shareholders and our progression as Liberty Capitals. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. Turning now to our operating highlights, we grew consumer wireless subscribers 2% year-over-year, ending the quarter with 200,000 consumer wireless lines. We had a total of 207,700 wireless lines at the quarter end, including 7,700 business lines. We added 1,000 consumer wireless lines during the quarter, including 500 postpaid lines, largely from our GCI Plus wireless-free-for-a-year promotion. On the data side, we saw a 3% decline year-over-year, naming the quarter with 150,500 data subscribers. We lost 700 data subscribers during the quarter due to continued competitive pressure from wireless substitution and limited competition from Starlink. Encouragingly, we note the pace of our broadband losses is decreasing, indicating a stabilizing broadband base. We believe the stabilization is due to the success of our new GCI Plus promotional offer and the improvements we are making to speed and reliability throughout our network. As we look forward, we expect the business to remain stable. At GCI, our operating priorities are, first, to invest in our network infrastructure, including closing our acquisition of Quintillium. Second, to complete our build-out commitments under the Alaska Plan. Third, to drive value and the benefits of convergence for our customers. And finally, to bridge the digital divide through our rural expansion. Starting with network infrastructure, our planned acquisition of Quintillion creates value for both the Alaska community and our shareholders and is expected to be accreted to free cash flow within the first year of closing. The transaction will bring together complementary fiber routes, and we expect to enhance network resilience, routing diversity, and overall reliability through a more robust architecture comprised of multiple rings and subrings. This expanded fiber footprint positions us to compete more effectively against LEO satellite broadband alternatives, bringing a more competitive connectivity environment to Alaska. Importantly, this transaction also strengthens critical communications infrastructure that supports elastic communities, government operations, and national security priorities. Next, on driving convergence and maximizing value and quality for our consumers. We remain encouraged by our promotional offers in the market, which provide value for our consumers. Last year, we concluded our unlimited test drive promotion. The retention of up sales from that promotion was exceptionally high in the low 90% range. This quarter, we launched free-for-a-year wireless promotion that continues to support our consumer post-paid wireless growth and drives convergence. Our converged customer base continues to grow. More than 40% of our broadband customers have one or more wireless lines, and more than 60% of our post-paid wireless lines are sold as part of a package. Lastly, I'm bridging the digital divide in Alaska through rural expansion and completing our commitments on the Alaska Plan. We are nearing completion of our build-out for the Alaska Plan, increasing wireless speeds across the communities we serve. We will continue to focus on providing 5G wireless service to all covered Alaskans over the coming years. We still expect CapEx, including Quintillion, to peak this year and to step down over the coming years as it returns to our historical range of 15 to 20 percent of revenue. The planned quintillion acquisitions should support substantial cash generation as we look ahead. In summary, we are encouraged by our steady financial and operational performance this quarter. At GCI Liberty, we remain focused on our continued evolution as Liberty Capital as we look to create value for our shareholders from our existing business and new investments. With that, I'll turn it to Brian to discuss the financials in more detail. Thanks, Ron, and good morning,

Brian Wendling, Chief Accounting Officer

everyone. At the end of the first quarter, GCI Liberty had consolidated cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash of $448 million, including $131 million of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash at GCI. Total principal amount of debt at GCI Liberty was approximately $1 billion. At quarter end, GCI Liberty's consolidated net leverage was 1.6 times, which incorporates cash at the parent level, including proceeds from last quarter's rights offering, as well as GCI's non-voting preferred stock. Subsequent to the end of the first quarter, GCI completed the acquisition of a 6% equity interest in Liberty Latin America from Searchlight for $107 million. GCI will also provide a $160 million unsecured loan to Quintilian, pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. Pro forma for these two transactions, GCI Liberty's consolidated net leverage would have been 2.3 times. At quarter end, GCI's net leverage, as defined in its credit agreement, was 2.3 times. Additionally, GCI's credit facility had $377 million of undrawn capacity net of letters of credit. Pro forma for the $160 million loan that GCI will provide to Quintilian, GCI's leverage would have been approximately 2.7 times. Now, turning to GCI's operating results for the first quarter, for the first quarter, GCI generated total revenue of $256 million, representing a 4% decrease year-over-year, an adjusted EBITDA of $93 million, an 18% decrease year-over-year. There were approximately 13 million of items impacting year-over-year comparability, most of which are not recurring in nature. These include about a $4 million benefit we recognized during the first quarter of 2025 related to the successful appeal of rates for services provided to certain healthcare customers in prior years. Additionally, we are lapping a roughly $2 million net benefit to way of the last quarter related to the fiber break on the Quintilian network that GCI uses capacity, which has since been repaired. We're also making incremental investments into operating business more efficiently, representing an increase of approximately $4 million in operating expenses. Lastly, during the first quarter of this year, we have $3 million in public company costs, which were not in the prior year numbers. We do expect these public company costs to continue. Looking at the segment detail, the consumer revenue declined 5% during the first quarter, with the majority of the decline driven by the shutdown of the video business, as well as data subscriber losses, slightly offset by growth in wireless. As a reminder, GCI exited the video business during the third quarter of last year. Consumer gross margin increased to 72.2% for the quarter, driven by a decline in consumer direct costs resulting from decreases in video programming costs. Business revenue declined 3% for the first quarter. As mentioned, above the first quarter, 25 benefited from approximately $4 million of out-of-period revenue, excluding, or out of period, more like recovered revenue, excluding this impact, revenue would have been flat. Business gross margin decreased to 77.3% for the first quarter, primarily driven by higher distribution costs related to restored service on the Quintillion Fiber Network. As we previously mentioned, this network was out of service during the first quarter of 2025. Capital expenditures net of grant proceeds totaled $55 million during the first quarter. We expect 2026 CapEx of approximately $290 million, which includes $20 million that was carried over from 2025 due to normal course timing shifts. And as Ron mentioned, we do expect 2026 to represent our peak year of CapEx spent. GCI generated $99 million in free cash flow for the trailing 12 months through the end of the first quarter, down around 13% year over year. This was largely driven by an increase in capital expenditures and that of grant proceeds. The CapEx increase in 2026, when coupled with ordinary course working capital swings, will drive proportionately lower free cash flow on a year-over-year basis. With that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Ron.

Hooper Stevens, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you. And, Operator, we can open it up for questions.

Operator

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. and for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from David Joyce with Seaport Research Partners. Please proceed.