America Movil is the latest mobile operator to announce plans to spin off its tower infrastructure. The company said the move would maximise the value of the infrastructure, providing its own management to focus on building and sharing the passive network elements.
The operation will cover all its telecom towers and other related passive infrastructure across America Movil's footprint in Latin America. Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals, the company expects to complete the spin-off this year.
The announcement was made alongside fourth-quarter results showing a rebound in net profit, up 80 percent year-on-year to MXN 37.3 billion. Revenues fell 3.1 percent to MXN 255 billion, led by a 9 percent drop in equipment sales. Service revenue was flat and grew by 2.2 percent excluding currency effects, driven by growth in postpaid mobile and fixed broadband.
EBITDA was up 1.3 percent to MXN 82.9 billion and rose 5.3 percent excluding currency effects. Correcting for a one-off effect booked in Q4 2019 on the restructuring of certain lease agreements, EBITDA would have increased 7.6 percent at constant exchange rates, the company said. The EBITDA margin reached 32.5 percent, up 1.4 percentage points from a year before.
The operator added 6.8 million mobile subscribers in the quarter, twice as many as in Q3. Both postpaid and prepaid net additions increased, to respectively 2.7 million and 4.0 million. The total mobile customer base was up 3.4 percent year-on-year to 287.5 million.
In the fixed market, the company added 208,000 new broadband subscribers, for a total 29.8 million, while pay-TV and fixed telephony lines were down by respectively 3.8 and 4.0 percent. Total fixed RGUs were down 0.7 percent over the year to 80.7 million.
