America Movil 1Q Net Profit Falls on Higher Financial Costs

By Anthony Harrup

MEXICO CITY--Telecommunications company América Móvil said its first-quarter net profit fell 55% on higher financial costs, including a foreign exchange loss.

Latin America's largest telecommunications company by subscribers on Tuesday reported a net profit of 13.49 billion Mexican pesos ($790 million), equivalent to 0.22 pesos a share or 25 cents an American depositary receipt.

Profit fell as financial costs rose to 13.71 billion pesos from practically zero a year earlier when the company had large foreign exchange gains. This year saw a foreign exchange loss of 1.7 billion pesos.

Revenue was down 2.7% to 203.3 billion pesos.

Income from services rose 1.1% to 170.89 billion pesos, revenue from equipment was down 4.1%, and other income fell 72% after being boosted in the year-earlier quarter by the sale of towers in Peru and the Dominican Republic. Service revenue grew 5% on the year at constant exchange rates.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of profitability, was down 2.6% at 80.58 billion pesos, also affected by the previous year's tower sales. Adjusted for exchange rates and the tower sales, Ebitda was up 7.5%, the company said.

América Movil added 1.5 million mobile subscribers during the quarter to end March with 311.6 million. Subscriptions to fixed-line services increased by 410,000 to 74.1 million, with 562,000 broadband adds partially offset by losses in phone and pay TV subscriptions.

Write to Anthony Harrup at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-16-24 1841ET