Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 87.5% of United Telecommunication Services N.V., which provides fixed and mobile services to the island nations of Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Bonaire, St. Barths, St. Eustatius and Saba, in an all cash transaction. The agreement represents all shares held in UTS by the government of Curacao.
In the transaction, UTS is valued at an enterprise value of $189 million on a cash- and debt-free basis, representing a multiple of 6x 2018 Adjusted EBITDA2 prior to the merger with the existing Cable & Wireless Communications Limited (C&W) business in Curacao and integration into LLA's regional operations.
Balan Nair, president and CEO of Liberty Latin America, said: "We are excited to welcome UTS to Liberty Latin America. By consolidating these operations in Curacao, 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 across Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Bonaire, St. Barths, St. Eustatius and Saba. As of Dec. 31, 2018, UTS served 101,000 fixed subscribers and 134,000 mobile subscribers, the majority of which were located in Curacao.
Liberty Latin America 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.
