Uniti posts $155 million loss on one-time impairment charge

Uniti, the Little Rock-based real estate investment trust that specializes in fiber for the communications industry, saw a growth in revenue, but decline in profits in the third quarter compared to a year ago primarily due to a one-time impairment charge.

On Thursday (Nov. 3), Uniti reported revenue of $283.1 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2022 versus $266.75 million one year ago. The company reported a net loss of $155.68 million for the quarter compared to a $43.37 million profit a year ago. Diluted earnings per share were negative 66 cents compared to 17 cents in previous third quarter.

The quarterly loss includes a $216 million goodwill impairment charge related to its fiber segment that was driven by an increase in the macro interest rate environment.

Uniti is an internally managed real estate investment trust that owns approximately 134,000 fiber route miles, eight million fiber strand miles, and other communications real estate throughout the U.S.

“The demand for our mission critical fiber infrastructure remains robust across all of our customer segments as evidenced by our sixth consecutive quarter of elevated new sales bookings and another strong quarter of gross install activity. Our strategy continues to focus on buying or building mission critical fiber infrastructure, and then leasing that infrastructure to anchor and additional lease-up customers at attractive economics,” said Uniti Group President and CEO Kenny Gunderman.

“Uniti remains well-positioned to weather the current economic headwinds through our $7 billion of revenue under contract with an average remaining term of 8 years, the strengthening of our balance sheet, lower capital intensity, and with 96% of our debt fixed-rate and no significant debt maturities before mid-2024,” Gunderman added.

At quarter-end, the Company had approximately $268.4 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, and undrawn borrowing availability under its revolving credit agreement.

Shares of Uniti (NASDAQ: UNIT) closed trading Thursday at $6.71. The company’s stock has hovered between a low of $6.35 per share and a high of $14.49 per share over the last 52 weeks.