Charter Q4 earnings will beat analyst forecasts, if preliminary r...
Charter Q4 earnings will beat analyst forecasts, if preliminary results get through audits. Charter released some subscriber and profit & loss information early because it wants to refinance some debt and is looking for a new line of credit.…
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It’s the 3rd time in a year that Charter has released early operating figures; the previous times, the reported results were essentially the same, wrote Bank of America analyst Douglas Shapiro. In Q4, Charter appears to have brought customers acquisition costs down and may be reversing a trend of sacrificing margins for customer growth, Shapiro said. Charter lost 43,000 basic video subscribers during the quarter, more than expected. It added 40,500 digital subscribers, 106,200 VoIP subscribers and 59,000 broadband subscribers. Only Charter’s phone business showed a year-over-year increase in subscriber growth. Charter expects Q4 sales of $1.4 billion, up 11.7 % from a year ago when accounting for cable systems it bought or sold in the last year. Operating expenses rose 10.8% to about $961.2 million. Meanwhile, Charter is working with J.P. Morgan, Banc of America Securities and Citigroup Global Markets to refinance a $6.85 billion credit line. It wants a new $8 billion Senior Secured credit facility. It would some proceeds to redeem up to $550 million floating rate notes due 2010 and up to $187 million 8.625% senior notes due 2009. Charter will report audited results Feb. 28.