MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil on Tuesday posted a better-than-expected 31.7% increase in its fourth-quarter net profit to 18.062 billion pesos ($1.065 billion), even as a stronger peso diluted revenues abroad.
The company, controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, reported quarterly revenue of 200.713 billion pesos ($11.83 billion), down 7.1% from a year earlier on a strengthened Mexican peso.
Net profit beat the mean estimate of $771.16 million from three analysts, based on LSEG data, however revenue fell short of four analysts’ predictions of a 10.0% increase to $12.082 billion.
Citing hyper inflation in Argentina, the company also gave comparisons excluding the South American country, showing a fourth-quarter revenue decline of 2.5% to 204.4 billion pesos compared to the same quarter a year ago.
Excluding Argentina, the company’s net profit in the quarter surged 67.8% to 26.4 billion pesos.
In a filing to Mexico’s stock exchange, America Movil said its core earnings, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), fell 3.3% in the quarter to 79.7 billion pesos.
It added 3.9 million mobile subscribers, including 2.7 million post-paid customers, driven by the Brazilian market. In the fixed-line segment, the company added 386,0000 broadband accesses.
For the year, revenue from mobile services increased 4.2%, the firm said, with growth stable in Mexico at 4.5%.
The company on Tuesday commented on its issuance in January of foreign debt worth up to 20 billion pesos as part of a five-year 130 billion peso debt program.
“This is the largest single tranche issuance for any Mexican corporation to date, with the order book reaching 26 billion pesos,” America Movil said in its filing.
($1= 16.9666 Mexican pesos at the end of December)
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Cassandra Garrison and Sonali Paul)
