CenturyLink Makes Integration Progress, Raises Estimates

CenturyLink posted its second quarter numbers yesterday after the market closed, and the market likes what it sees so far. Revenues of $5.90B were roughly inline with expectations, while adjusted earnings per share of $0.25 were ten cents above projections.

On the revenue front, CenturyLink saw declines in voice & collaboration and in transport and infrastructure, but growth in IP/Data and IT/Managed Services. Total revenues declined 2% over the same period last year on a pro forma basis.

The company has been moving quickly on integration following the Level 3 deal, and says it finished the quarter having achieved $675M of annualized run-rate EBITDA synergies, up sharply from the $215M they had been at after Q1. They spent $162M on that integration during the quarter.

That led to adjusted EBITDA during the quarter of $2.271B excluding integration and special items, which corresponds to margins of some 38.5% and generated free cash flow of $919. As a result the company increased its projections for 2018 adjusted EBITDA from $8.75-8.95B to $9.00-9.15B and its FCF after dividends from $850M-1.05B all the way up to $1.3-1.5B.

 

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Financials