Company announces multi-year fiber deployment acceleration plan across Optimum and Suddenlink

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) today reports results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021.

Dexter Goei, Altice USA Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are pleased to conclude 2021 having made progress on our growth strategies by accelerating the enhancements of our network, product and customer experience. We see customer trends improving as we continue the expansion of our sales distribution channels and recently launched our planned competitive converged internet and mobile offerings. Today we also announce a new plan to bring 100% fiber broadband, delivering multi-gig speeds, to more than two thirds of our entire footprint over the next four years, reaching a total of 6.5 million FTTH passings by the end of 2025. We are confident in our strategy and that our focus on these key initiatives will drive long-term sustainable growth and value.”

Key Financial Highlights

• Total Revenue declined -0.6% YoY in Q4 2021 to $2.52 billion, including Residential revenue decline of -2.0% YoY, Business Services revenue growth of +12.1% YoY and News & Advertising revenue decline of -11.7% YoY (News & Advertising revenue grew +4.2% YoY excluding political). Total revenue grew +2.0% in full-year (FY) 2021 to $10.09 billion (or +0.8% YoY adjusted for RSN credits⁽¹⁾, and -0.2% YoY adjusted for both RSN credits⁽¹⁾ and air strand revenue⁽²⁾).
• Net income attributable to stockholders was $251.7 million in Q4 2021 ($0.56/share on a diluted basis) compared to net income of $330.5 million in Q4 2020 ($0.60/share on a diluted basis). Net income attributable to stockholders was $990.3 million in FY 2021, or $2.14/share, compared to net income of $436.2 million, or $0.75/share on a diluted basis in FY 2020.
• Net cash flows from operating activities were $676.6 million in Q4 2021, compared to $791.5 million in Q4 2020. FY 2021 net cash flows from operating activities was $2.85 billion, compared to $2.98 billion in FY 2020.
• Adjusted EBITDA⁽³⁾ declined -5.9% YoY in Q4 2021 to $1.08 billion with a margin of 43.0% (44.2% ex-mobile⁽⁴⁾). Adjusted EBITDA grew +0.3% YoY in FY 2021 to $4.43 billion with a margin of 43.9% (44.8% ex-mobile⁽⁴⁾).
• Cash capital expenditures of $386.6 million in Q4 2021 represented 15.3% of revenue and was up 12.2% YoY. Cash capex of $1.23 billion in FY 2021 represented 12.2% of revenue and was up +14.7% YoY driven by accelerated FTTH, new builds, and Suddenlink network upgrades. In FY 2022, the Company expects to further accelerate investments in key growth initiatives, increasing cash capex to approximately $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion excluding capital expenditures associated with potential subsidized rural broadband construction.
• Operating Free Cash Flow⁽³⁾ decreased -13.6% YoY to $696.4 million in Q4 2021, and decreased -4.3% YoY in FY 2021 to $3.20 billion, reflecting higher cash capex and cash taxes.
• Free Cash Flow⁽³⁾ decreased -35.1% YoY to $290.0 million in Q4 2021, and decreased -14.9% YoY in FY 2021 to $1.62 billion, mainly reflecting higher cash capex, taxes, and working capital.
• Share repurchases of $804.9 million in FY 2021.

Key Operational Highlights

• Total unique Residential customer relationships declined -0.3% YoY in FY 2021. Unique Residential customer net losses were -13k in Q4 2021, compared to -15k Residential customer net losses in Q4 2020 (vs. -5k net losses in Q4 2019). FY 2021 unique Residential customer organic net losses were -51k, or -16k reported net losses including Morris Broadband acquired residential customers in April 2021⁽⁶⁾, compared to +81k organic net additions in FY 2020 (vs. +15k net additions in FY 2019).
• Residential Broadband RGUs: Quarterly Residential broadband net losses were -2k in Q4 2021, compared to -4k broadband net losses in Q4 2020 (vs. +7k in Q4 2019). FY 2021 Residential broadband organic net losses were -3k, or +27k reported net additions including Morris Broadband acquired broadband subscribers⁽⁶⁾, compared to +142k organic net additions in FY 2020 (vs. +72k net additions in FY 2019).
• Residential Video RGUs: Quarterly video net losses were -71k in Q4 2021, compared to -74k video net losses in Q4 2020 (vs. -44k net losses in Q4 2019). FY 2021 organic video net losses were -241k, or -229k reported net losses including Morris Broadband acquired video subscribers⁽⁶⁾, compared to -237k organic net losses in FY 2020 (vs. -107k net losses in FY 2019).
• Residential revenue declined -2.0% YoY in Q4 2021 to $1.92 billion, or declined -2.8% YoY excluding RSN credits. FY 2021 Residential revenue grew +0.3% YoY, or declined -1.0% excluding RSN credits.
  • Residential revenue per customer relationship in Q4 2021 declined -1.6% YoY to $137.79, or -2.4% YoY excluding RSN credits. FY 2021 residential revenue per customer relationship declined -0.7% YoY to $141.08, or -2.1% YoY excluding RSN credits, mostly due to the loss of higher ARPU video customers.
• Business Services revenue grew +12.1% YoY in Q4 2021, or +3.6% YoY excluding air strand revenue⁽²⁾. SMB / Other revenue grew +15.3% YoY in Q4 2021, or +3.7% excluding air strand revenue. Lightpath revenue grew +3.2% YoY in Q4 2021. FY 2021 Business Services revenue grew +9.0% YoY, or +2.2% YoY excluding air strand revenue. SMB / Other revenue grew +11.5% YoY in FY 2021, or +2.3% excluding air strand revenue. Lightpath revenue grew +2.0% YoY in FY 2021.
• News and Advertising revenue declined -11.7% YoY in Q4 2021, compared to a strong political cycle at the end of 2020 (excluding political, News & Advertising revenue grew +4.2% YoY in Q4 2021). FY 2021 News and Advertising revenue grew +6.1% YoY and grew +15.0% YoY in FY 2021 excluding political revenue.
• Optimum Mobile had approximately 186k mobile lines as of December 31, 2021. Mobile net additions in Q4 2021 were +5k (+18k in FY 2021). Mobile revenue grew +18.1% YoY to $23.8 million for the quarter and grew +7.8% YoY in FY 2021 to $84.2 million. At the end of FY 2021 mobile reached 4.0% penetration of Altice USA's Residential customer base.

Accelerated fiber network rollout across Optimum and Suddenlink

Altice USA today announces an acceleration of its fiber deployment strategy over the next four years across its Optimum and Suddenlink footprints, expecting to reach 6.5 million passings by the end of 2025. This new fiber expansion in Suddenlink coupled with the continued fiber build in Optimum will position the Company to pass more than two thirds of its entire footprint with 100% fiber broadband over the next four years, including approximately 2.5 million fiber passings at Suddenlink and 4 million fiber passings at Optimum:

• At the end of 2021, Altice USA covered a total of approximately 1.2 million passings with Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology available to customers (an increase of +271k FTTH passings “ready for sales” YoY) across the Optimum footprint. Customer penetration of total FTTH passings grew to 5.9% in Q4 2021, compared to 2.9% in Q4 2020.
• In FY 2022, the Company is now targeting ~1.1 million incremental FTTH passings across the Optimum footprint (including 300k in Connecticut) and ~200k incremental FTTH passings across the Suddenlink footprint – a total of 1.3 million incremental FTTH passings.
• For FY 2023 through FY 2025, the Company is targeting ~1.7 million incremental FTTH passings across the Optimum footprint and ~2.3 million incremental FTTH passings across the Suddenlink footprint (including new build FTTH expansion and broadband subsidies) – a total of 4.0 million incremental FTTH passings.
• Initially the Suddenlink FTTH rollout will be focused in Texas. Other states in the Suddenlink footprint to be upgraded to FTTH include areas of Arizona, California, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.

Accelerated new build activity and Suddenlink network upgrades

Altice USA has been accelerating the pace of its network edge-outs, adding +51k total passings in Q4 2021 and a total of +229k total passings in FY 2021 (+141k total passings FY 2021 on an organic basis excluding the acquisition of Morris Broadband in Q2 2021). The Company continues to see strong momentum in growing customer penetration, typically reaching approximately 40% within a year of rollout in new-build areas. The Company expects to add an incremental 175k+ new passings in 2022.

Altice USA continues to upgrade its existing hybrid fibercoaxial (HFC) network to deliver higher speeds in certain Suddenlink markets. In FY 2021, the Company upgraded 304k passings through radio frequency (RF) upgrades and equipment upgrades to enable higher speeds. These markets previously only offered up to 150 Mbps download speeds and were upgraded to offer up to 400 Mbps or 1 Gbps.

Increased network usage and demand for higher broadband speeds

The average broadband speed taken by Altice USA’s customer base has nearly doubled in the past three years to 352 Mbps at the end of Q4 2021. Approximately 50% of our broadband customers remain on plans with download speeds of 200 Mbps or less, representing a sizable opportunity to continue to upgrade speeds. Broadband-only customer usage averaged 556 GB per month in Q4 2021, which is 25% higher than the average usage of the entire customer base (446 GB per month).

In Q4 2021, sell-in of 1 Gbps (1 Gig) broadband speeds to new customers, where 1 Gig services are available, was 47%, up from 40% in Q4 2020. Approximately 14.9% of the total customer base currently takes Gigabit speeds, representing a significant growth opportunity for the Company.

Balance Sheet Review

As of December 31, 2021:

• Consolidated net debt for Altice USA at the end of Q4 2021 was $24,400 million⁽⁷⁾, representing consolidated net leverage of 5.4x Adjusted EBITDA at the end of Q4 2021 on a Last 2-Quarter Annualized (L2QA) basis (5.5x last-twelve months or "LTM"). The decrease in net debt in Q4 2021 of approximately $233 million from the prior quarter is due to debt repayments using Free Cash Flow generation.
• Net debt for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was $23,054 million at the end of Q4 2021⁽⁷⁾, representing net leverage of 5.4x Adjusted EBITDA on a L2QA basis (5.5x LTM). The weighted average cost of debt for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was 4.6% as of the end of Q4 2021 and the weighted average life was 6.2 years. The Company expects to return to a leverage target of 4.5x - 5.0x net debt / Adjusted EBITDA on an L2QA basis for its CSC Holdings, LLC debt silo over time.
• Net debt for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was $1,386 million at the end of Q4 2021⁽⁷⁾, representing net leverage of 6.7x Adjusted EBITDA on a L2QA basis (6.7x LTM). The weighted average cost of debt for Cablevision Lightpath LLC was 4.3% as of the end of Q4 2021 and the weighted average life was 6.1 years.

Additional Highlights and Announcements

Altice USA Launches "Internet + Mobile Savings" Plans

In January 2022, the Company launched new “Internet + Mobile Savings” plans, giving Optimum Mobile and Optimum Internet customers the opportunity to save more on their monthly bills. Customers must maintain active Optimum Mobile and Optimum Internet services to qualify for savings. Depending on the type of mobile and Internet plans, customers could save up to $30 per month off their monthly mobile and Internet bills.

Altice USA Leadership Changes

On January 25, 2022, Altice USA announced that Keith Bowen had been named President of Altice News & Advertising, assuming the role from Jon Steinberg, who will depart the company in the spring. Keith Bowen previously served as Chief Revenue Officer for Altice News & Advertising.

On January 10, 2022, Altice USA announced the appointment of Shuvankar Roy as the company’s Senior Vice President of Customer Experience. Shuvankar (Shu), who joined Altice USA with over two decades of experience at various major telecommunications providers, is responsible for enhancing the Optimum and Suddenlink customer journey, with a focus on implementing a modern, refreshed, and consistent service and support experience.

On December 14, 2021, Altice USA announced that Lee Schroeder, Altice USA’s Executive Vice President of Government & Community Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, will be leaving the company in July 2022. The Community Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer roles have been assumed by Lisa Gonzalez Anselmo, Altice USA’s Executive Vice President of Communications.

On December 6, 2021, Altice USA announced the appointment of Ben Collier as Senior Vice President of Brand, Marketing, and Media. Collier will lead the company’s brand and marketing strategy, advertising, and media teams as the company looks to advance its connectivity services across the United States and prepares to unify its Suddenlink and Optimum brands under the Optimum banner.

Share Repurchases and Shares Outstanding

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, Altice USA repurchased an aggregate of 23.6 million shares for a total purchase price of approximately $804.9 million, at an average price of $34.12. As of December 31, 2021, Altice USA had 454,654,140 combined Class A and Class B shares outstanding.

For the three months ended December 31, 2021, Altice USA did not repurchase shares.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation recognizes Altice USA as a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality’ for the Fourth Year in a Row

Altice USA is again proud to be recognized for its commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace where employees are encouraged to be their authentic selves, making us stronger as a company. As recognized in this ranking, the progress that continues to transpire reflects the collective work done across our entire business supported by our Diversity and Inclusion programs – and remains an inspiration as we look ahead.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

We define Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, as net income (loss) excluding income taxes, non-operating income or expenses, loss on extinguishment of debt and write-off of deferred financing costs, gain (loss) on interest rate swap contracts, gain (loss) on derivative contracts, gain (loss) on investments and sale of affiliate interests, interest expense, interest income, depreciation and amortization (including impairments), share-based compensation expense or benefit, restructuring expense or credits and transaction expenses.

We believe Adjusted EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating the operating performance of the Company. Adjusted EBITDA and similar measures with similar titles are common performance measures used by investors, analysts and peers to compare performance in our industry. Internally, we use revenue and Adjusted EBITDA measures as important indicators of our business performance and evaluate management’s effectiveness with specific reference to these indicators. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides management and investors a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business and operating results by excluding items that are not comparable across reporting periods or that do not otherwise relate to the Company’s ongoing operating results. Adjusted EBITDA should be viewed as a supplement to and not a substitute for operating income (loss), net income (loss), and other measures of performance presented in accordance with GAAP. Since Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP, this measure may not be comparable to similar measures with similar titles used by other companies.

We also use Operating Free Cash Flow (defined as Adjusted EBITDA less cash capital expenditures), and Free Cash Flow (defined as net cash flows from operating activities less cash capital expenditures) as indicators of the Company’s financial performance. We believe these measures are two of several benchmarks used by investors, analysts and peers for comparison of performance in the Company’s industry, although they may not be directly comparable to similar measures reported by other companies.

Consolidated Net Debt as of December 31, 2021

Net Leverage Schedules as of December 31, 2021 (in $m)

Numerical information is presented on a rounded basis using actual amounts. Minor differences in totals and percentage calculations may exist due to rounding.

About Altice USA

Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) is one of the largest broadband communications and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband, video, mobile, proprietary content and advertising services to more than 5.0 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum and Suddenlink brands. The Company operates a4, an advanced advertising and data business, which provides audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and advertising clients. Altice USA also offers hyper-local, national, international and business news through its News 12, Cheddar and i24NEWS networks.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the information under the headings “Accelerated fiber network rollout across Optimum and Suddenlink” and “Accelerated new build activity and Suddenlink network upgrades” and other statements relating to capital expenditure plans, fiber deployment, network expansion and upgrades, distribution channel expansion, and leverage targets. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release, including, without limitation, those regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things: our future financial conditions and performance, results of operations and liquidity; our strategy, plans, objectives, prospects, growth, goals and targets; our ability to achieve operational performance improvements; and future developments in the markets in which we participate or are seeking to participate. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "should," "target," "remain" or "will" or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. Where, in any forward-looking statement, we express an expectation or belief as to future results or events, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no assurance that the expectation or belief will result or be achieved or accomplished. To the extent that statements in this release are not recitations of historical fact, such statements constitute forward-looking statements, which, by definition, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements including risks referred to in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on Altice USA’s forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. Altice USA specifically disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, as of any future date.

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