Carlos Garcia Moreno
Analyst · Itau BBA. Your line is now open
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, the fourth quarter ended with our renewed surge in U.S. interest rates, with 10-year treasury yields jumping approximately 80 basis points in the quarter to finish the year just shy of 4.6%, roughly the highest level since the end of April. This significant increase in long-term interest rates took place not long after the Fed reduced its policy rates by 50 basis points in September, 14 months after completing a period of policy rate hikes. Our stronger-than-expected labor market and economic activity led to major revisions in expectations regarding future reductions in policy rates by the Fed and hence the path of medium and long-term yields, all of which resulted in the spike in yields mentioned above. Throughout the period, substantially all of the currencies in our region of operations depreciated versus the dollar with the Brazilian real experiencing the worst decline of all, 13.7%, followed by the Chilean peso, 11%; and the euro 7%. We added 2.1 million postpaid subscribers in the fourth quarter, with Brazil contributing 655,000; Colombia, 178,000; and Mexico 141,000. On our prepaid platform, we have registered 1.3 million net disconnections in the period. We had minus 1.8 million in Brazil after a cleanup profit space. But Mexico gained 302,000 subs, followed by Central America with 196,000; Colombia, 128,000; and Argentina 164,000. In the fixed line segment, we obtained 320,000 broadband accesses, including 132,000 in Mexico; 75,000 in Brazil and 45,000 in Argentina. Voice lines and PayTV units registered minor losses in the period, 88,000 in all. Our postpaid base increased 5.3% year-on-year, with prepaid expanding 0.4% and fixed broadband accesses 4.7%. All the above figures include those reported by ClaroVTR in Chile over the last 2 months of 2024. Fourth quarter revenue was up 18% in Mexican peso terms to MXN237 billon, with service revenue planning 19.1% and EBITDA, 16.4% to MXN91 billion. Those rates have increased reflecting the consolidation of the Chilean operation from November 1, but were largely boosted by the accounting methodology associated with Argentinian operations. Since these operations take place in a country that is considered hyperinflationary, the annual revenues adjusted for inflation and expressed in December 2024 prices, then converted to Mexican peso at the end of the year exchange rate per rule IFRS 29. The fourth quarter figures are obtained subtracting from the annual figures those obtained through September. Since Argentina’s rate of inflation was 118% through December whereas the Argentinian peso only depreciated 4% versus Mexican peso. It has depreciated sharply in December 2023. The accounting adjustments mentioned are considerable when expressed in Mexican pesos. Excluding Argentina and therefore those variations having to do with the accounting methodology, América Móvil’s fourth quarter revenue increased 10% in Mexican peso terms with 10.7% service revenue growth and 8.6% EBITDA growth. On the consolidation of the Chilean operation, its contributions to our consolidated revenue over the last 2 months of the year amounted to MXN3.3 billion. Now at constant exchange rates and as has been customary in our quarterly reports, excluding Argentina from this calculation, our fourth quarter revenue rose 5.7% year-on-year on the back of a 6.6% service revenue increase, the best performance in over a year, with EBITDA expanding 5.1% before one-off adjustments and 7.2% after those adjustments were made. These increases include the impact of the consolidation of the Chilean operations that was felt more strongly in the fixed line platform as can be seen in the moment. Mobile service revenue expanded 6.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter. Without Chile, it would have been up 5.1%, in line with the pace of growth seen in the prior three quarters. Postpaid revenue rose 8.5% in the quarter compared to 6.3% in the prior quarter, whereas prepaid revenue increased 2.5%, down slightly from 3.6% in the third quarter. Mobile service revenue accelerated in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru offsetting the deceleration observed in Mexico and Central America. Fixed line service revenue climbed 7.4%, including the Chilean operation and would have posted a 4% increase without it, in line with the increase observed in second quarter, but somewhat lower than the growth rate of the third quarter. Broadband revenue growth accelerated to 9.8% pace from 7.4% in the prior quarter and corporate networks revenue to 12.3% from 10.1%, with PayTV revenue growth hitting 5.2% compared to a 0.8% decline in the third quarter. Fixed service revenue growth decelerated in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia from the pace in the prior quarter, but increased at a faster pace in Austria and Eastern Europe as well as in Central America. América Móvil experienced an operating profit of MXN46.4 billion in the fourth quarter, 11% higher than that of the year earlier quarter after depreciation and amortization charges that increased 22.6% reflecting partly consolidation of the Chilean operation, inflationary adjustments of the Argentinean assets and the amortization of new license acquired in ‘23 and ‘24 in Austria and Colombia. Our net income came in at MXN9.5 billion in the fourth quarter and was 47.5% lower year-on-year on account of higher comprehensive financing costs. These totaled MXN30 billion, nearly half of which was associated with foreign exchange losses. Our net income was equivalent to MXN0.15 per share and $0.15 per ADR. And our net debt ended the year at MXN488 billion, excluding capitalized lease obligations. In cash flow terms, it increased MXN19 billion over the year and kept us in line at MXN131 billion in capital expenditures, MXN51 billion in shareholder distributions. These are net of the dividends received from our variation stakes and MXN24 billion in the amortization of labor obligations. At the end of the year, our net debt stood at 1.44x last 12 months EBITDA. The latter figure already reflects the impact of the consolidation of ClaroVTR in Chile – in América Móvil from October – from the end of October. So with that, I would thank you and hand the floor back to Daniel. Thank you.