Millicom International Cellular, operating in Colombia and other Latin American markets as Tigo, reported last week strong revenue growth, up 14.9% to $6.39 billion (all figures in USD) and an EBITDA of $2.09 billion, revealing a solid operating margin of 32.8%. The resultant proposed dividend by the board is $2.64 per share. The growth was strongest in Q4, at 17%, or $1.8 billion.

This was the result of adding 2.3 million new mobile subscribers and smartphone sales in the fourth quarter alone of over 1.6 million units.

Millicom guidancefor 2015 (At constant foreign exchange rates and constant perimeter) is:
Revenue: between $7.1 and $7.5 billion
EBITDA: between $2.20 and $2.35 billion
Capex: between $1.25 and $1.35 billion (excludes spectrum and license costs)

“2014 was a year of transformation and rapid progress in executing the digital lifestyle strategy but trading conditions in emerging markets weakened in the fourth quarter. We saw currencies decline in a number of our countries, particularly Colombia. Despite this, we delivered a strong Q4, with revenue growing at an underlying rate of 10.8% – the highest quarterly rate in the year,” said Interim CEO Tim Pennington in a statement. “This growth is a direct result of the digital lifestyle strategy we began in 2012 and the last quarter has been the most successful to date. Smartphone sales in Q4 exceeded 1.6 million, a further 1.5 million customers became users of our mobile financial services and we surpassed five million revenue generating units in our cable business in Latin America.”

“The merger with UNE in Colombia was the highlight of 2014, continued Pennington. “We also launched Tigo Star in Latin America, five satellite pay-TV services and two Tigo Sports TV channels. Tigo Music came to Africa after its stunning success in Latin America. 4G services launched in Chad, Bolivia, Honduras and Rwanda. Our mobile money innovations included interoperability, returns paid on accounts and cross-border payments with currency conversion. These are strong achievements.”

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About the Author

Loren Moss is the founder and publisher of Finance Colombia. He has over 20 years of international business experience, including over a decade of experience in securities, insurance, and commercial real estate, at the institutional and international level.