America Movil reported a small drop in third-quarter revenues, down by 2.6 percent to MXN 253.4 billion due mainly to a stronger peso. At constant exchange rates, services revenues continued to improve, up 4.5 percent year-on-year. The underlying growth came from the mobile market, where the operator added 4.2 million new subscribers in the three months, and especially growth in its largest markets Mexico and Brazil.
Mobile service revenue rose 5.9 percent at constant exchange rates, with growth of 5.4 percent in prepaid and 6.4 percent in postpaid. Mexico and Brazil both increased their mobile service revenue 9 percent. Fixed-line service revenue rose just 1.6 percent, with 57,000 new RGUs, as growth in broadband and corporate network services was offset by weaker pay-TV sales.
Quarterly EBITDA increased 1.3 percent year-on-year to MXN 87.6 billion and was up 7.5 percent excluding currency effects. The EBITDA margin rose 1.3 percentage points to 34.6 percent, the highest level in nine years, the company said. Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Peru drove the margin expansion.
The bottom line was a net profit of MXN 15.8 billion, down 16.4 percent due to forex losses generated by the stronger US dollar. Net interest expense was down 12 percent, and net debt totaled MXN 487.6 billion at end-September, equal to 1.55 times annualised EBITDAal and down by MXN 59 billion since the start of the year.
America Movil finished the period with 301.9 million mobile customers, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier. Fixed RGUs reached 80.6 million, down 0.4 percent from a year ago.
