Liberty Latin America Settles Insurance Claims for Hurricanes Maria and Irma
- Total net third-party insurance proceeds of $108.5 million
- Final settlement payment of $58.5 million expected in Q1 2019
Denver, Colorado – January 17, 2019: Liberty Latin America Ltd. (“Liberty Latin America” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: LILA and LILAK, OTC Link: LILAB) today announced that it agreed with its third-party insurance provider in late December 2018 to settle claims for a gross total of $138.5 million under its integrated group property and business interruption insurance program for the damages caused by Hurricanes Maria and Irma. After the deduction of $30 million of self-insurance, the net third-party insurance proceeds for Liberty Latin America are $108.5 million.
We have received net advance payments from our third-party insurance provider totaling $50 million, of which $45 million was provided to Liberty Puerto Rico and $5 million was provided to Cable & Wireless (“C&W”). Liberty Latin America expects to receive the remaining $58.5 million in Q1 2019, which will mainly be split between C&W and Liberty Puerto Rico.
With respect to Liberty Latin America’s financial results, the proceeds from the settlement will be allocated between recoveries for business interruption and operating expenses, which will benefit OCF1, and recoveries associated with property damages, which will be reflected as a gain within impairment, restructuring and other operating items, net. There will be no impact on revenue reported in 2018 or 2019. Of the net third-party insurance proceeds, over half is expected to benefit our 2018 OCF.