Carlos Garcia Moreno
Analyst
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, interest rates in the US and several other countries continued their downward trend in the third quarter, with 10-year US Treasury yields falling 85 basis points from the beginning of the quarter through mid-September to a low of 3.6%. The decline was driven by concern about the cooling US economy and its corresponding impact on the labor market. It prompted the Fed to finally declare its first discount rate reduction in 2.5 years, a period in which it brought about a 5 percentage point increase in such rate. Shortly after the end of the third quarter, 10-year yields have bounced back to more than 4% on the back of unexpectedly strong non-farm payroll numbers for September, wiping out half of the reductions that have taken place through mid-September. Throughout the quarter, Central Bank discount rates fell by 50 basis points in Mexico and Peru, 1 percentage point in Colombia, and 25 basis points in Chile, but were going up once again in Brazil by 25 basis points. In the third quarter, we added 1.8 million subscribers, of which 1.4 million were postpaid. These include regular subscribers as well as [Technical Difficulty] dongles and mobile devices. Austria contributed 430,000 of them, Brazil contributed 291,000, Colombia contributed 59,000, and Mexico 108,000 postpaid subscribers. Our prepaid segment obtained 468,000 net additions led by Colombia with 251,000, Eastern Europe with 213,000, and Argentina with 200,000, but registered 343,000 connections in Brazil and 136,000 in Mexico. In the fixed line segment, we connected 327,000 broadband accesses, 116,000 in Mexico, 59,000 in Brazil, and approximately 43,000 in Argentina and Central America. We disconnected 83,000 landlines and 30,000 PayTV units in the quarter. Mobile postpaid and fixed broadband continued to be the main drivers of access growth with 5.9% and 5.2%, respectively, year-on-year. Third quarter revenue totaled MXN223 billion with service revenue expanding 11.3% in Mexican peso terms and EBITDA 11.9%, partly reflecting the depreciation of the Mexican peso versus most of the currencies in our region of operations, with the notable exception of the Brazilian real, approximately 10% replication versus both the dollar and the euro, 8% versus the Colombia Peso, and 12% versus the Peruvian sol. At constant exchange rates, service revenue was up 5.5% year-on-year, an improvement on the 4.7% rate observed in prior quarter, while adjusted EBITDA increased 7.3%. Mobile service revenue growth accelerated somewhat from the prior quarter to 5.2%, posting its best performance in over a year on the back of postpaid revenue growth. On the fixed line space, service revenue rose 5.9%. Broadband revenue decelerated slightly from the prior quarter to 7.4%, and as corporate networks revenue expanded 10.1% faster than the precedent quarter. The decline in PayTV revenue continues but has become less and less significant. Brazil and Colombia continued the trend over the last year of posting improved steady revenue growth every quarter, while Central America presented better growth rates than in the preceding two quarters. Mexico and Peru maintained their pace from prior quarters. Our operating profit reached MXN47.4 billion. It was up 14.2% in Mexican peso terms and 10% at constant exchange rates. Adjusted for one-offs, as mentioned above, our operating profit increased 12% at constant exchange rates. We posted a net profit of MXN6.4 billion in the quarter, nearly trebling the one obtained a year before. It was equivalent to MXN0.10 per share or $0.11 per ADR, and came about on the back of a higher operating profit, as mentioned before, but also as comprehensive financing costs came down 4.8% relative to the same-period of 2023 to MXN28 billion. Our net debt ended September at MXN433 billion, having increased by MXN7.3 billion relative to December 2023, partly reflecting the impact of the depreciation of the Mexican peso on our non-peso financial obligations. In cash flow terms, our net debt increased by MXN19.7 billion. In the nine months to September, our capital expenditures totaled MXN86.7 billion, shareholder distributions MXN32.9 billion, split evenly -- almost evenly between share buybacks and dividend payments and we reduced our labor obligations in the amount of MXN23.7 billion, particular of these curtailments. Our net debt excluding leases to EBITDA after lease ratio ended September at 1.34 times last 12 months EBITDA, practically at the lower leverage limit that we committed to maintain in our Investor Day. And finally, I'd just like to highlight that we received our third ESG rating upgrade by MSCI in as many years, reflecting improvements on corporate governance, security, and data progress. With that, I would like to pass it back -- the floor back to Daniel. Thank you.