US-based telecoms operator NII Holdings, which emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation proceedings in June this year, has announced its consolidated financial results for the third quarter of 2015, reporting operating revenues of USD284.7 million. Consolidated adjusted operating loss before depreciation and amortisation, which excludes the impact of non-cash asset impairments, restructuring charges and other unusual items, totalled USD24.7 million in the three months ended 30 September 2015, and the firm posted a consolidated operating loss of USD77.7 million. In connection with its emergence from bankruptcy, NII has adopted the provisions of ‘fresh start accounting’ as of 30 June 2015 and became a new entity for financial reporting purposes. The company’s results in Argentina are presented as discontinued operations, resulting from the strategic partnership formed in September, in which Grupo Clarin acquired 49% of Nextel Argentina, and a call option for the remaining 51%, for USD178 million.
In Brazil, NII recorded 27,300 net subscriber additions in the quarter to close September 2015 with 4.463 million customers, an increase of 4.4% year-on-year from 4.276 million in 3Q14. W-CDMA customers totalled 2.605 million at the end of September 2015, up from 1.334 million twelve months earlier. ‘Our focus on liquidity coupled with the implementation of a new operating plan should result in improvements to our business going forward,’ said Dan Freiman, NII Holdings’ vice president and CFO, adding: ‘While our cash burn during the third quarter was high due to a number of non-recurring items, we expect to see an improvement starting in the fourth quarter when we project to spend under USD100 million. We expect that the operational changes we are making to the business in Brazil and at our headquarters in the US will allow us to fund the business for the next two years using our current cash and investments and assuming we receive the funds currently held in escrow from the sales of our operations in Mexico and Peru.’