Mexican-based América Móvil (NYSE:AMX) announced its quarterly earnings yesterday with a mixed bag of results. Overall the company reported revenues totaling $2.1 billion dollars in the quarter. At $1.8 billion dollars, service revenues were 2.9 percent higher than a year before as the carrier continued to focus on upselling clients to higher ARPU brands. The earnings report stated it was ready to launch 5G in the Mexico market area and hopes to sell its Tracfone unit by year-end.
The company’s net profit was down $780 million, a drop of 16.4 percent from the year-earlier quarter. In the U.S. sector, América Móvil saw 185,000 mobile disconnections finishing September with 20.1 million subscribers. The company said its operation has been affected by the limited supply of handsets, especially in the range of mid and low-prices.
Overall, however, it added 4.2 million wireless subscribers in the third quarter, including 2.2 million postpaid clients. Roughly half the new postpaid clients came from Brazil, with Colombia contributing 313.000 subs and Peru 262,000. Mexico was the leader in prepaid, with 577,000 net adds, followed by Brazil with 307,000.
On September 15, the company announced that it had entered into an agreement with Cable & Wireless Panama, S.A., an affiliate of Liberty Latin America LTD., to sell its 100 percent interest in Claro Panama, S.A. The agreed purchase price is $200 million on a cash/debt free basis. Later that month, América Móvil’s shareholders approved the Latam tower spin-off by announcing that shareholders representing approximately 98 percent of our capital stock approved the spin-off of approximately 36,000 telecommunications towers and other associated passive infrastructure deployed in 15 countries in Latin America.
By virtue of the spin-off, AMX will contribute to Sitios Latinoamérica, S.A.B. de C.V. a portion of its capital stock, assets and liabilities. The spin-off is subject to customary conditions and adjustments for corporate reorganizations and shall comply with applicable requirements under the laws of Mexico and the jurisdictions where the telecommunications towers are located.
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