America Movil, the massive Mexican telecommunications company, said that it would give top priority to its plan to roll out 5G wireless cellular technology throughout its key markets in 2025, particularly in Latin America.
Under the ownership of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s family, the company declared in April 2024 that one of the primary objectives of its projected USD 7 billion capital expenditure budget for 2024 was 5G expansion.
The term “5G networks” describes the next generation of wireless cellular technology, which offers faster upload and download speeds as well as more reliable connections.
Talking about 5G expansion during a third-quarter earnings call, Daniel Hajj, CEO of America Movil, stressed that the technology’s continued adoption “will continue the same way for 2025.”
He called attention to the rollout of 5G in Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
Meanwhile, CFO Daniel Garcia mentioned that refinancing existing debt will be necessary in order to obtain additional financing in certain markets, citing Peru, Colombia, and Brazil.
He continued, “The current debt levels will be maintained.”
The CEO’s remarks come after the company’s disappointing third-quarter results in its primary market of Mexico.
JPMorgan analysts highlighted America Movil’s impressive results in Brazil and Colombia in a research note.
According to Hajj, there is a “very positive trend” as more Brazilian consumers who were previously prepaid subscribers move to contracts requiring regular payments.
To increase cooperation between the Mexican telecom company and space technology company SpaceX, the latter, led by maverick tycoon Elon Musk, is also being investigated (as an investment/partnership opportunity) by America Movil.
According to its executives, SpaceX would be able to join America Movil’s primary mobile services network through the possible agreement.
After announcing that it had tripled its quarterly profit, América Móvil’s shares rose by over 3% following the earnings call.
Who Is Carlos Slim?
Carlos Slim Helu was born in Mexico City, to Lebanese parents along with his five siblings.
Carlos’s father was a successful businessman who instilled a love of commerce in all his children from a very young age. By the time he was just 12 years old, Carlos had already made his first investment in shares of the National Bank.
Carlos worked for his father’s company until he was seventeen years old, following his death in 1953.
He studied civil engineering at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. He taught algebra and linear programming while he was in school, but as soon as he graduated, he entered the business world.
Carlos started his own brokerage at the beginning of his career after receiving years of business training from his father.
He would put his money into small, independent companies, and by 1965, he had expanded to the point where he could buy out or incorporate other businesses.
He invested in many types of businesses, but his primary interests were in real estate, construction, and mining. In 1966, his estimated net worth was USD 40 million.
He kept making investments, and by 1980, he had combined his holdings into a main business known as Grupo Galas.
The year 1982 saw a sharp decline in oil prices, which had a devastating effect on the Mexican economy. As a result, he increased the size of his holdings and made investments in foreign businesses; soon, he owned 50% of “The Hershey Company.”
He kept expanding his authority over telephone communication companies in 1990 with the intention of eventually purchasing “Telmex,” the Mexican phone company, from the government.
Soon after acquiring the business, he created a Telmex version for the US market and even acquired stock in the US mobile firm Tracfone.
Throughout the 2000s, Carlos continued to invest in major corporations, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Telekom Austria, The New York Times Company, and Volaris. By January 2015, he had become the largest individual shareholder of The New York Times Company.
With a USD 56 billion net worth in 2020, Carlos Slim ranks among the richest in the world.
America Movil Triples Quarterly Net Profit In Q3
Meanwhile, America Movil said that its net profit for the third quarter of last year more than tripled. This increase was partly attributed to lower financing costs and higher foreign earnings due to the peso’s decline.
In a filing to the primary stock exchange in Mexico, the company reported a 217% increase in net profit to 6.43 billion Mexican pesos (USD 326.37 million).
The company’s revenues for the period totalled 223.46 billion pesos (USD 11.35 billion), an increase of nearly 10% from the previous year.
Net profit came in below the estimate from analysts polled by LSEG, who had forecast dollar-denominated net earnings of USD 1.11 billion from revenues of USD 11.47 billion for July through September.
The company said its higher earnings were nonetheless helped by the sale of some towers as well as the depreciation of the Mexican peso, boosting the peso-denominated value of earnings made abroad. By the end of September, the Mexican peso had weakened more than 13% against the US dollar compared to a year earlier.
America Movil said the peso had weakened against most currencies in the regions where it operates, “with the notable exception of the Brazilian real.”
The venture’s core earnings, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), rose around 12% in the quarter to 89.42 billion pesos, an increase of 6% stripping out the impacts of foreign exchange.
The company also added 1.8 million subscribers, including 1.4 million post-paid customers, driven mainly by gains in Brazil, the region’s largest economy. In the fixed-line segment, the company added 327,000 broadband accesses.