America Movil reported a small increase in second-quarter sales and EBITDA, driven by the continued shift to postpaid mobile services and growth in the broadband market. Revenues rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to MXN 257.31 billion, and EBITDA improved 3.0 percent to MXN 72.02 billion, keeping the margin stable at 28.0 percent.
Service revenues rose 1.4 percent and were up 2.0 percent at constant exchange rates, similar to the previous quarter. The operator said mobile service revenue growth was strong in Brazil (11.9%) and Mexico (8.7%), and Tracfone in the US also returned to growth. Colombia and Ecuador also showed improvement in the fixed market, and the overall decline in pay-TV revenues appeared to be stabilising.
The net result was still a loss of MXN 236 million versus a profit of MXN 14.31 billion a year earlier, as the stronger dollar led to increased financing costs and forex losses.
Capital expenditure reached MXN 33 billion in the quarter, up from MXN 24 billion in the first three months of the year. Net debt was up slightly from three months earlier, at MXN 617.6 billion versus MXN 614.1 billion.
America Movil ended the quarter with 279.0 million mobile customers, down by 73,000 from March due mainly to de-activated prepaid lines. The company disconnected 1.2 million prepaid subscribers, of which about half in the US due to changes in the Lifeline subsidy programme, and around 340,000 each in Brazil and Colombia. This was offset by a gain of 1.1 million postpaid subscribers, twice as many as the year-earlier period. This figure includes 537,000 additions in Brazil, 184,000 in Mexico and 103,000 in Colombia.
Fixed RGUs rose by 140,000 in the quarter to 83.35 million. Broadband customers increased by 275,000 in Q2 and were up by 5.0 percent year-on-year, mostly due to growth in Brazil and Central America. The pay-TV subscriber base was still slightly lower than in 2017 after net adds of 136,000 in Q2.
