América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning. My name is Samantha, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the América Móvil First Quarter 2026 Conference Call and webcast. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Ms. Daniela Lecuona, Head of Investor Relations.

Good morning. Thank you all for joining us today to discuss our first quarter of 2026 financial and operating report. We have today on the line Mr. Daniel Hajj, our CEO; Mr. Oscar Von Hauske, our COO; and Mr. Carlos Jose Moreno, our CFO.

Thank you, Daniela. Thank you, everyone, for being in the call. Carlos is going to make a summary of the first quarter results. Carlos?

Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, the downward trend on short-term dollar interest rates following the 25 basis points rate reduction of the policy rate by the Fed in December continued in the beginning of the first quarter as the market became increasingly concerned with a potential slowdown in economic activity in the U.S. The value of the dollar versus other currencies, including those in our region of operations declined throughout the first part of the quarter with the dollar falling 4.3% versus the Mexican peso, 3% versus the Chilean peso and 6.4% versus the Brazilian real by the end of February. With the major exception of the latter, U.S. dollar made up practically all its losses in the weeks after the initiation of the war with Iran. Throughout the period, the differential between short-term rates and 10-year rates widened significantly from 8 basis points to 64 basis points at the close of the quarter with investors eyeing both a slowdown in the pace of economic activity possibly even a recession and higher inflation rates. In this context, in the first quarter, we continue to observe a trend towards an acceleration of both postpaid subscriber growth and that of broadband accesses, as you can see in the slide. The base increased 8.8% and 6%, respectively, vis-a-vis the year earlier quarter. First quarter revenue was up 2.1% in Mexican peso terms to MXN 237 billion, with service revenue up 0.6%, equipment revenue 7.4% and other revenue 108%, including the proceeds of a favorable ruling in Chile on account of a dispute around certain TV rights. EBITDA increased at nearly twice the pace as revenue at 3.8% this year in Mexican peso. The figures cited above reflect the appreciation of Mexican peso versus practically all other currencies in our region of operations, having gained 16% versus the dollar 4.6% versus the euro, 4.5% versus the Brazilian real and 2.5% versus the Colombian peso with respect to the same period of 2025. So major appreciation of the peso first quarter of '26 vis-a-vis first quarter of '25. At constant exchange rates, revenue rose 6.1% on the back of a 4.6% increase in service revenue and 11.3% in equipment revenue, driving an 8% expansion in EBITDA. Adjusted for the extraordinary proceeds of the legal ruling, EBITDA was up 7.0%. The greater operating leverage is allowing for faster EBITDA growth with EBITDA now expanding more rapidly than service revenue and led our consolidated EBITDA margin to reach 40%, one of our highest margins that we've seen. At 6.4% year-on-year, a similar pace over the last several quarters, mobile service revenue growth has remained resilient with postpaid revenue growth at 7.3% and prepaid revenue at 5%, having expanded faster quarter after quarter over the last year. Mobile service revenue growth has been on an upward trend in Mexico and Colombia, as you can see in the slide, on the back of greater prepaid revenue, which has been recovering over the last several quarters. On the fixed line platform, service revenue growth was up 1.7% in the first quarter. Some regions, in particular, Eastern Europe, Central America, Peru and Ecuador registered very rapid growth driven by residential demand. As regards to our operating profit, it came in at MXN 50.5 billion, was up 12% in Mexican peso terms, while our comprehensive financing costs declined 9.9%, reflecting lower net interest expenses. These concepts brought about a 25% increase in our net income to MXN 23.4 billion, which was equivalent to MXN 0.39 per share and $0.44 per ADR. Our financial debt reached MXN 527 billion at the end of March, having increased by MXN 2.5 billion versus the one outstanding at the close of December. But this means that our net debt for the period at the end of March stood at MXN 437 billion and was equivalent to 1.41x EBITDA after leases. Our cash flow in the first quarter allowed us to cover MXN 21.6 billion in CapEx, MXN 1.4 billion in share buybacks, MXN 1.5 billion in labor obligations and further to reduce our net debt by MXN 1 billion, okay? So that you can see here in the slide. So with that, I thank you for listening to the presentation, and I will pass the floor back to Daniel for Q&A.

Thank you. Thank you, Carlos, and we can start with the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Leonardo Olmos with UBS.

Congrats on the results. I got a couple of questions here. The first on capital allocation and buybacks. With the reduction of net debt to EBITDA to 1.4, how should we think about the balance between continued deleveraging and a more visible acceleration in buybacks from here? What leverage would you make more comfortable stepping up capital returns? And the second one, still on leverage, but more on the M&A context. If operating trends and FX remain broadly stable, should we expect leverage to continue trending lower from here? And how do you think about M&A activity in that context, which -- how is going to impact your free cash flow concerning, I mean, the actual payments of the M&A? That's it.

Thank you, Leonardo. Well, a couple of -- what we need to see and what we want is some space because I think the region is in very good shape, okay? So the region is going to -- we're going to have some opportunities in the region, in Latin America and in Eastern Europe. So both we are growing good, and we're doing very good. So we think that in Eastern Europe and Latin America, there's going to be good opportunities, and we are looking for some of them. We already -- we -- just a few months ago, we closed Azteca, the network of Azteca in Colombia. We just closed Desktop. So there's going to be more opportunities on that. So as you said, we need to have a good balance between buybacks, between deleverage and the opportunities that we have. We are looking for some opportunities. And these opportunities are going to give us a very good competitive position in the places where we are looking. So -- these opportunities are going to make a very good fit and are going to allow us to grow more in -- or faster than where we are. So that's where we are, and that's the balance that we have. Carlos was saying, we want to have the debt to 1.3, more or less is what we want to have. We have more opportunities. And we are also -- we are increasing our -- We're increasing to MXN 10,000 million more to have MXN 21,000 million on the fund. We want to buy. We want to buy back more. We want to take the opportunities, and we want to deleverage, as you are saying, we want to have a good balance on that. Right now, I'm personally seeing good opportunities in some countries that makes very good fit for us, and we are looking and doing that. So that's where we are, Leonardo.

Yes. You answered both of my questions in one answer. Just a quick follow-up. In the past, you used to talk about fiber opportunities in LATAM. Are we still on that? Or are you considering mobile or other type of network complementarity?

No, we're considering everything. We're considering fiber. I think there's a lot of fiber companies in the region that makes speed. Instead of putting fiber, they are already with fiber and some customers and also spectrum, you know that we buy last year some spectrum in Puerto Rico. There's a lot of things that you can see what we do in Desktop, the backbone that we do with Azteca, Colombia. And you are going to see all this year good opportunities, Leonardo. So we want to take those -- to have a chance to take those opportunities.

Our next question comes from Marcelo Santos at JPMorgan.

I have 2. The first is if you could provide us an update on the CapEx plan for 2026. There was a lot of changes in currencies, the Mexican peso getting stronger. So just wanted to hear what you plan for CapEx this year and maybe the next couple of years? And the second one, you mentioned in the release some operational issues in Argentina. Could you please comment a bit on that? Just give a bit more color on that would be great.

Well, as you said, we have been having a lot of movements in the exchange rates. And we have been reviewing carefully what we're going to have in each country for the CapEx. You know that the CapEx is part in dollars, part in local currency. So we're reviewing that. But all overall, what we think and finalizing our CapEx, we think that the CapEx for this year is going to be $7 billion -- around $7 billion, depending to be a little bit more, a little bit less depending on, as we said, the exchange rates. And we think that for the next years will be around that. We are going to have our Investor Day in May, and we can finalize the numbers for the next years. But I can say that we are more or less in that number. And Argentina, I don't know what you are asking on Argentina.

I think you mentioned on the fixed line business in Argentina that you said the fixed line market has become more challenging because of the difficulties in assessing clients in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. So just wanted to better understand.

We're doing very good putting fiber in Argentina, very difficult for us to do it in Buenos Aires as the capital city. So that's the only thing is where we're putting fiber, we're growing, we're putting broadband, we're giving TV and doing quad-play. It's been very good for us. We are growing very good in Argentina. And the only place where it has been difficult for us is Buenos Aires because I think we have permission, but there we don't it's difficult because they don't rent us the telephone posts and they don't allow all the competition to go there and difficult to do it underground. To go underground has been very difficult to do it there, but that's the main reason that we have. Where we have fiber, we're growing very good, penetrating the network, doing fiber, doing quad-play, doing excellent. So that's been good for us. With all of that, well, we're going to have a big competitor in Buenos Aires because the market share of our competitor Telecom buying Telefonica is going to be high. So let's see what is going to happen there.

Your next question comes from Andres Coello of Scotiabank.

Daniel, as you know, Starlink said back in December that the direct-to-cell service is already available or could be available in Mexico. Obviously, users will appreciate that. And I'm wondering if América Móvil could work with Starlink?

I don't hear you so well. Can you repeat the question, please?

Sure. So Starlink said in December that direct-to- cell service is available in Mexico since December. So they could provide a service in Mexico. And this will be obviously very good for users, especially in remote areas. So I'm wondering if América Móvil could work with Starlink to provide direct-to-cell service.

Yes. I think the real direct to sell service, what I understand is going to be on 2027, something like that. They are going to launch a new satellite and that will be the direct to sell. Well, they have been successful selling broadband to the houses in Latin America, I think all around the world. We are open to do anything for them that makes sense for us, of course, and we're talking with them. And I think it's going to be a good technology. So for doing that, you need to have a spectrum. So I don't know if they already have a spectrum in some places. I understand that they buy spectrum in the U.S. and some in Europe, but I don't know if they have a spectrum in Latin America. So -- but we are open. If your question is, we want -- or we can do something with them, of course, we can -- I think it's a service that makes complement with us. And of course, we are open to do something with them.

Okay. As you know, Entel is doing direct to sell in Chile and Peru. And I understand that in Costa Rica, the service will be available soon. So you are saying that you will wait until 2027 for the service to be available in Mexico.

No, we're not waiting. We're talking with them, but I think the real and the orbits of satellites for cell is going to be available in 2027. They are doing something today in some countries, of course. But the one that is going to be big and it's going to be directly to sell is going to be -- I think they said -- is what they said is I'm not stating, but what they said is going to be in 2027. Of course, they already have -- the new constellation is going to be in 2027, but they already have a constellation that can do the fixed broadband. But we're not waiting to talk with them. We are talking with them and see what opportunities we can have.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Luca Brendan at Bank of America.

I have 2 from my side here. The first one, can you comment a little on how are you seeing the expansion of your partnership with NuCel? And how relevant it has been for the strong expansion we have seen in Brazil mobile this quarter in terms of new net additions? And then the second one, how do you see the potential impact of the recently announced M&A in Mexico Mobile and what the impact that this could have to the market and to América Móvil more specifically?

The second question is the announcement in mobile in Mexico, what?

Yes, the recent M&A that was announced at Telefonica selling their assets.

They buy -- the purchase from Telefonica, the sale of Telefonica in Mexico...

Yes, yes, that's it.

Okay. Well, I don't know if in Brazil, we are disclosing the numbers of number portability between what we have and what's NuCel. What I can tell you that we have been doing very well. In number portability, we have been gaining number portability for the last 4 years, 3, 4 years, gaining number portability in all the regions with all our competitors. So we have been doing well. And with NuCel we increased that number portability. So that's nothing that we have been doing bad and then with NuCel change and we're doing good. So we have been gaining in number portability because we have a very good 5G. We have customer care. We do combos with the fixed. So we have a lot of promotions, and we are, I think, in a very good shape in terms of technology, in customer care. We have been investing in Brazil, and that's giving us good results for the last year. So with NuCel, our portability expands. We are growing. I don't know -- I don't have the numbers here how much is in us and how much is in NuCel. I don't know if in Brazil, but if in Brazil, they disclose that, Daniela can give it to you. But it's something on top of what we have been doing very well. I'm not saying that NuCel, now it's doing very well. And we think that we can still grow more in Brazil in number portability. Since October, I think we're gaining more and more, and I hope we can do more, Luca. And well, how I can see in Mexico, I can say that the last years of Telefonica in Mexico has been shrinking a little bit in terms of technology, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of frequencies. So they are -- they start to be like an MVNO of, I think, Altán and the other of AT&T, they are buying that. So there's a good company, a good name, but not investing what they need to invest in Mexico. And I don't know what's going to be the strategy of this new buyers, and I don't know if they are going to still do and manage the company as an MVNO or they are going to put infrastructure and buy spectrum and compete. So let's see. Still right now, I don't know what they are going to do.

Our next question comes from the line of Phani Kanumuri from HSBC.

My first question is on Mexico Mobile. The growth seems to be accelerating. What are the major drivers behind the growth in Mexico Mobile? And can we expect this growth to continue in 2026? My second question is on working capital. It seems to have increased a bit in 1Q '26 compared to 1Q '25. What are the reasons behind the increase in working capital?

Well, on Mexico Mobile, I think we are growing. Part is I think that the economy in Mexico is getting better. The increase in the salaries, the minimum wages increased 12%, I think, and that gives us an increase also in the prepaid side. So as we have been saying, prepaid is very related to the economy. And if the economy is starting to be better, then the people starting to spend a little bit more. And that's what we have been seeing in the prepaid side. In postpaid, people like our promotions. We are increasing ARPU. And it's not new. I think in postpaid, the growth rate has been very good for the last 5 quarters. So our ARPU is growing. And we are growing in new customers and this -- and our actual customers are moving to better plans and consuming more. So that's more or less what you have been seeing. And I hope that will be -- but it's not in this quarter. I think for the last 5 quarters, 6 quarters, 4 quarters, the growth of postpaid has been doing good. And in prepaid, I think last year, we had a little bit of slowdown because of the slowdown of the economy, but I think the economy is getting better and the recovery is doing good. So that's more or less what we have.

And on the working capital, I think there's 2 things to note. One is that we are taking in a bit more inventory. We have been more cautious about availability of supply. If you look at equipment revenues, they've been extremely good, extremely solid this quarter and the last one. And if you look across countries, you will see certainly Mexico, Brazil are showing very, very strong sales of equipment. So that's partly reflected in the working capital. And then again, and it's partly linked to this, we are financing very successfully handsets. The consequence in Mexico, for instance, the way we do it is we are basically leasing the handsets and this basically entails some additional working capital. But it's been good sales and very, very successful these methods of selling the equipment.

And to add a little bit of what Carlos is saying, we all know that the memory chips has been increasing a lot, the prices. The price of the handsets is starting to increase. So we want to be sure that we have enough handsets to serve our base, our customer base. So that's really the reason why we increase on inventory. So prices are increasing. So -- and we don't know if only prices increasing or we're going to have a lack of handsets. So that's why we are taking that decision to increase a little bit our inventories.

Our next question comes from the line of Emilio Fuentes De Leon from GBM.

I have 2 questions regarding Mexico on the operating side. First, regarding the disconnections from the initiative from the digital transformation agency, could you give us a little more color on the nature of these clients? Were they mostly unactive lines? And my second question would be on the broadband side. Given that you're reaching 90% of customers connected through fiber, would this mean that we should expect the net adds to decelerate going forward?

Well, you know that since January 9, the registry of lines is -- we have to do it by law, we have to register the line and do a lot of things there. So maybe people is starting to activate less and churn less because they don't want to do it. But well, that is going to happen. So I think there's going to be a lot of cleaning the basis of subscribers and subscribers that they are not using at the end of the day, you need to cancel them because they are not going to be registered in the 1st of July. So there's going to be a lot of things. But all overall, it's only number of lines, not money and consumption and -- so for me, I don't know if -- I'm not looking on how many lines or how many new activations because if I activate a lot, but then they churn in the next 3 or 4 months, it's worse because it's cost for me and it's not a revenue for me. So that will make subscribers, the base of subscribers to be more clean and to really understand where we are in number of subscribers with this new register of lines. So let's see. It's been not as fast as all want, the register. All the new ones has to be registered and all the old ones has to be registered until July 1. So let's see what is going to happen there. But all overall, what I'm saying is a lot of people maybe it's not buying a new phone and staying with that because if they buy the new one, then they have to register. But that's going to finish maybe in July. So there's going to be a lot of things. All overall, the important is how many good subscribers and subscribers that are consuming are the ones that the company has, and that you see in the revenues, in the ARPU in all of that. So that's what is going to happen. [Foreign language] The broadband in what way? And what's the reason why the broadband will slow down? What's your second question?

Yes. My question was regarding the broadband net adds. Should we expect this to slow down as you reach full penetration on your fiber network?

Well, still we have -- I don't think that our broadband will slow down because what we're doing is we're moving from copper to fiber. I think...

93%.

93% of our base is in fiber right now.

We have very good bundles in the market. We recently increased the speed almost 1/3 with the same price. So we -- I think we will continue with a good level of net adds...

We hope they don't slow down, and we can continue with that number.

Our next question comes from David Lopez at New Street Research.

Congrats on the results. A couple of questions, please. First one is a follow-up on Mexican broadband. I was wondering if you could comment on the competition recently, if there has been any changes? And if you could expand a bit on the reason why you've increased the speed on all the packages. And with Televisa upgrading to fiber, a large part of its business, does that mean it's going to be harder for your net adds? And the second question on Brazil. I was wondering if you could comment a bit on your plans for price increase this year.

Well, I'm going to start with the second question, and I'm going to let Oscar talk a little bit about the broadband in Mexico. Well, in Brazil, we don't have until now a plan of increasing prices at this moment. I don't know if there's going to be a chance to do it in the year. But right now, we don't have any idea on increasing prices in Brazil in anything in mobile, in broadband, in TV. So we don't have plans to increase prices. And on broadband in Mexico?

As we mentioned before, we already upgrade the network. We have a very good network. And you mentioned about the business. We want to differentiate ourselves in broadband, adding value to our small business connectivity. So we are bundled with cloud services, cybersecurity, productivity tools for small business. And really we have a team really focused just on small business to really penetrate not only broadband to bring value added to the small business as well on enterprise. So we believe that, that has been working very well, and the product has been very well adopted in the market. So we believe that we will continue with that.

And to talk a little bit about -- I want to do some other comments. I think all overall, América Móvil is doing very well in other countries. We're talking about Mexico a lot. We're talking a lot about Brazil. But I think the recovery in Colombia has been very good. We are increasing in broadband. We're doing much better in postpaid. So in Colombia, I think the market is performing well. We are performing well. We are cutting costs and doing a lot of things. So our revenues are growing, our EBITDA are growing...

In Peru.

No, in Colombia. In Peru, also, things are going okay with us. We have a tough competitor that has a lot of -- sorry, and in Colombia, we advanced in 5G, and we have the best 5G network until now. So we are doing okay. In Peru, also doing very good in broadband, growing our net adds and performing very well in revenue and in EBITDA. So if you see all the Central America has been doing also good. We talk also about Eastern Europe growing a lot, moving a lot. 5 years ago, we only have mobile. Today, we have mobile and fixed and doing a lot of convergence there. So I think the results and in almost all the countries, we are performing very well, cutting costs, digitalizing, that will help us for the future. We are putting a lot of money on the CapEx on digitalizing our processes, digital IT and doing that in also in big businesses, we are putting more and more cloud, selling more services. So all of that has been doing very strong in our region. And as we said, we want to speed up and take more opportunities there. So that's what I want to talk a little bit more on that.

Our next question comes from the line of Ernesto Gonzalez with Morgan Stanley.

And I wanted to ask exactly about Colombia, which you were commenting on a moment ago and a few of the other markets where Telefonica has recently left. Could you discuss a little bit of the trends you're seeing? For example, Colombia, we saw an acceleration in revenues. What is driven by your commercial strategy? What is driven by market consolidation? And any color you could give on these moves is greatly appreciated.

Well, in Colombia, we have been investing for a long time. We invest in 5G. We have the best 5G network. So our customers are happy. Our traffic is growing well. In terms of broadband, we have been decreased the last year a little bit, but we are increasing this quarter on the broadband side. We have a lot of competition in Colombia with these ISPs there. And consolidation has been also good. But I think consolidation in Latin America is also being good for all the competitors. So you need to invest. You need to take the opportunities. But all overall, we think the markets are looking better.

That's really clear. And just one more question on Mexico. Margins improved, and they were the highest level in a long time. You continue expanding really, really well in fixed. What drove the margin improvement? And how sustainable is it?

Well, in fixed, what Oscar is saying is we increased the speeds to all of our customers. So we have fiber, and we're using that fiber. So customers are being -- the evaluation of our customers is that they are happy with the network, happy with the service, and we are going to still give what the market is giving. So we want to be very competitive there. And also in prepaid, as we said, prepaid, let's say, I think -- I don't remember exactly the number, but I think first quarter of last year, we have decrease in revenues in prepaid. And this quarter, we are increasing like 4%, 5% there. So economy is doing better. Customers are consuming more. So all overall, is what -- and we are very strict on the cost control, something that nobody see and is giving us a lot of good is the digitalization of all our process. So we are taking -- we are being much more productive, digitalizing all the process, doing better IT, using some AI and some processes that give us more knowledge of our customers. So all of that is helping us to perform better in each country.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Daniel Hajj for final remarks.

Daniela wants to.

Just before we end the call, I just want to remind everyone that we're hosting our next Investor Day in New York City. It is on May 27. The save-the-date has been sent out, and that we will be sharing details on the agenda soon. We really hope to see you all there. And please don't hesitate to contact the team if you have any questions or need any help with the registration.

And thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.