Consolidated Communications Holdings Reports Third Quarter 2010 Results

MATTOON, Ill., Nov. 4, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNSL)reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010.

"I am pleased to report another solid quarter," said Bob Currey, president and CEO. "We delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of total connection increases driven by our strong growth in broadband subscribers and industry leading access line performance. Our 1,879 net IPTV adds represent our best quarter ever. The continued success in adding IPTV subscribers and the value of the triple play bundle helped us deliver our best year over year line loss in nearly three years. Financially, both our revenue and adjusted EBITDA were consistent with the prior quarter producing another comfortable dividend payout ratio."

The Company is updating its full year guidance with respect to cash taxes and cash interest expense, while reaffirming its previous capital expenditure guidance of $41.0 million to $42.0 million. Cash interest expense is now expected to be in the range of $49.5 million to $50.5 million, which reduces the high end of the guidance range by $1.0 million. Cash income taxes are now expected to be in the range of $18.0 million to $20.0 million, down from $21.0 million to $23.0 million. The improvement in cash income taxes is the result of the Company's election to take bonus depreciation as part of the recently enacted Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

On November 1, 2010, the Company's board of directors declared its next quarterly dividend of $0.38738 per common share, which is payable on February 1, 2011 to stockholders of record at the close of business on January 15, 2011. 

Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. is an established rural local exchange company providing voice, data and video services to residential and business customers in Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania. Each of the operating companies has been operating in its local market for over 100 years.  As of September 30, 2010, the Company had 239,695 ILEC access lines, 73,313 Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) access line equivalents, 104,933 DSL subscribers and 27,953 IPTV subscribers.  Consolidated Communications offers a wide range of telecommunications services, including local and long distance service, custom calling features, private line services, high-speed Internet access, digital TV, carrier access services and directory publishing.

Any statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical fact, including statements about management's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements and should be evaluated as such. These statements are made on the basis of management's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance. Words such as "estimate," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "target," "project," "should," "may," "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements (including oral representations) involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include economic and financial market conditions generally and economic conditions in Consolidated's service areas; changes in the valuation of pension plan assets, as well as a number of other factors related to our business, including various risks to shareholders of not receiving dividends and risks to Consolidated's ability to pursue growth opportunities if Consolidated continues to pay dividends according to the current dividend policy; various risks to the price and volatility of Consolidated's common stock; the substantial amount of debt and Consolidated's ability to incur additional debt in the future; Consolidated's need for a significant amount of cash to service and repay the debt and to pay dividends on the common stock; restrictions contained in the debt agreements that limit the discretion of management in operating the business; the ability to refinance the existing debt as necessary; regulatory changes, including changes to subsidies, rapid development and introduction of new technologies and intense competition in the telecommunications industry; risks associated with Consolidated's possible pursuit of acquisitions; system failures; losses of large customers or government contracts; risks associated with the rights-of-way for the network; disruptions in the relationship with third party vendors; losses of key management personnel and the inability to attract and retain highly qualified management and personnel in the future; changes in the extensive governmental legislation and regulations governing telecommunications providers and the provision of telecommunications services; telecommunications carriers disputing and/or avoiding their obligations to pay network access charges for use of Consolidated's network; high costs of regulatory compliance; the competitive impact of legislation and regulatory changes in the telecommunications industry; and liability and compliance costs regarding environmental regulations. These and other risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in Consolidated's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. Many of these risks are beyond management's ability to control or predict. All forward-looking statements attributable to Consolidated or persons acting on behalf of us are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in this press release and Consolidated's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Furthermore, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required under the federal securities laws or the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Consolidated does not undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.