ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—Liberty Global Inc. says its first-quarter loss widened on higher interest payments and losses on derivatives.
The Englewood, Colo.-based company’s loss reached $155.6 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a loss of $136.1 million, or 35 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 7 cents per share.
Liberty says revenue rose to $2.61 billion from $2.11 billion. Analysts forecast $2.56 billion in revenue.
The gains come as Liberty expanded its customer base 7 percent the past year with faster growth in broadband Internet and voice. President and CEO Mike Fries said the company had 24.4 million revenue-generating units of video, broadband and telephone services.
“When you look across our core metrics and value drivers, this was a strong first quarter,” Fries said.
The company spent $910 million buying back 26 million of its shares and announced it would spend an additional $500 million to buy back $650 million worth of shares.
Liberty Global operates international cable networks, mostly in central and eastern Europe. The company has about 16 million customers in 15 countries.
