América Móvil Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 12, 2025

There are 16 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Chach, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the America Movil Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Conference Call and Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Thank you.

Operator

Now I will turn the call over to Ms. Danielle Licona, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our fourth quarter financial and operating results. We have on the line Mr. Daniel Hajj, CEO Mr.

Speaker 1

Carlos Carminchaouke, COO and Mr. Carlos Garcia Moreno, CFO.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Daniela. Welcome, everyone. Carlos is going to

Speaker 3

make a summary of the fourth quarter twenty twenty four results. Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, the fourth quarter ended with a renewed surge in U. S.

Speaker 3

Interest rates with ten year pressure yields jumping approximately 80 basis points to the quarter, to seventy year just shy of 4.6%, roughly the highest level since the 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. A 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 allotte 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 percent and the euro with 7%. We added 2,100,000 posted subscribers in the fourth quarter with Brazil contributing 655,000, Colombia one hundred and 70 eight thousand and Mexico One Hundred And Forty One Thousand.

Speaker 3

On our prepaid platform, we registered 1,300,000 net disconnections in the period. We had minus 1,800,000 in Brazil after a cleanup of its base. But Mexico gained 302,000 subs followed by Central America with 196,000, Colombia one hundred and 20 eight thousand and Argentina One Hundred And Sixty Four Thousand. In the fixed line segment, we obtained 320,000 broadband accesses including 132,000 in Mexico, Seventy Five Thousand in Brazil and 45,000 in Argentina. Both lines and Petriville units registered minor losses in the period 88,000 in all.

Speaker 3

Our posted base increased 5.3% year on year with prepaid expanding 0.4% and fixed broadband access 4.7%. All the above figures include those reported by Caro BTR in Chile over the last two months of 2024. Fourth quarter revenue was up 18% in Mexican peso terms to ARS237 billion with service revenue planning 19.1% and EBITDA 15.4% to MXN 91,000,000,000. Those rates of increase reflect 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 revenue is adjusted for inflation and expecting December 2024 prices then converted to Mexican peso at the end of the year exchange rate per rule IFRS 29.

Speaker 3

The fourth quarter figures are obtained subtracting from the annual figures that was obtained through September. Since Argentina's rate of inflation was 118% through December, while the Argentinian peso only depreciated by 4% by Mexican peso, it had depreciated sharply in December 2020. The accounting adjustments mentioned are considerable when expected in Mexican pesos. Excluding Argentina and therefore all variations having to do with the accounting methodology, American Mobile's fourth quarter revenue increased 10% in Mexican peso pens with 10.7% service revenue growth and 8.6% EBITDA growth. On the consolidation of the Chilean operations, its contributions to our consolidated revenue over the last two months of the year amounted to 3,800,000,000.0 peso.

Speaker 3

Now at constant exchange rates as has been customary in our quarterly reports, excluding Akerdina 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. This increase has included the impact of the consolidation of the Chilean operations, but it was held more strongly in the Switzerland 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 since the prior three quarters. Postpaid revenue rose 8.5% in the quarter compared to 6.3% in prior quarter whereas prepaid revenue increased 2.5% down slightly from 3.6 in the third quarter.

Speaker 3

Mobile service revenue accelerated in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru offsetting the deceleration of sales 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 decrease of sales in the second quarter but somewhat lower than the growth rate of the third quarter. Broadband revenue growth accelerated to a 9.8% pace from 7.4% in prior quarter and corporate networks revenue to 12.3% from 10.1 with pay TV 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. America Movils turned an operating profit of MXN46.4 billion in the fourth quarter, '11 percent higher than that of the year earlier quarter as a depreciation amortization charge that increased 32.6% reflecting partly the consolidation of the Chilean operation, inflationary adjustments of the Argentinian assets and the amortization of new license acquired in 2023 and 2024 in Austria and Colombia.

Speaker 3

Our net income came in at MXN 9,500,000,000.0 in the fourth quarter and was 47.5% lower year on year on account of higher comprehensive financing costs. This totaled MXN 30,000,000,000 nearly half of which was associated with foreign exchange losses. Our net income was equivalent to ARS15 per share, ARS15 per ARS and our net debt ended the year at ARS48 billion, excluding capitalized lease obligations. In cash flow terms, it increased ARS 19,000,000,000 over the year and helped us finance a quarter of ARS 31,000,000,000 in capital expenditures, 51,000,000,000 pesos in shareholding distributions. These are net of the dividends received from our various on stake and 24,000,000,000 pesos in the amortization of labor obligations.

Speaker 3

At the end of the year, our net debt stood at 1.4 times last twelve months EBITDA. The latter figure already reflects the impact of the consolidation of charro BTR in Chile in American Mogul from October from the October. So with that, I would thank you and pass the floor back to Daniel. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Carlos. I think we can start with Q and A.

Speaker 3

Hello.

Operator

So the first question comes from Carlos de la Garza from Itau BBA. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. I have two questions on my end, please. The first one is if you have a specific CapEx guidance for this year, given obviously the sharp effects movement, I don't know if there's been any deviation from what you guided in Investor Day. And secondly, in Brazil, maybe Daniela, you can talk about the details of the MVNO deal with NovoBank.

Speaker 4

I'm just concerned if there's any or are you at all concerned if there's any potential for cannibalization of your own product or in terms of network capacity, if there's any kind of concern at all, given that they might become very large at some point?

Speaker 2

Hi, Carlos. On the CapEx, I think we give guidance for the three years. I think we are on that guidance including what we are incorporating the CapEx of Chile. So we still don't know exactly what's going to be the CapEx for Chile for this year. But what we have is we do three year CapEx in Chile Twenty Three, Twenty Four and '25.

Speaker 2

I think this year is the last year of where we have we're going to change the network modernize our network five gs. We're going to put more coverage. We're going to do fiber, more redundancies. We're doing a lot of things in Chile. We're on track there.

Speaker 2

We have a very good management in Chile. So we're very happy the way Chile is evolving right now. And with this I think we're still not sure maybe could be million to million more of Chile still we don't know for this last year and then both the CapEx and the guidance that we gave last time is still the same plus what we are going to put in Chile for this year. I think next year in Chile maybe can reduce, but this year we're finalizing the last set the three year plan that we have to modernize all the networks that we have. In Brazil with Nubank, we are happy with them.

Speaker 2

We are doing okay and we are not worried that NuBank can cannibalize our prepaid subscribers. So we're happy. I think it's a very good alliance that we have with them and we're doing okay. So it's okay, good naming, good they recharge a lot with new bank and so we are doing very good.

Speaker 3

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Walter Piepzczyk from LightShed Partners. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Hi, good morning. Go on for Walt. Thanks for taking the question. I kind of have a follow-up. Even with Chile included in the CapEx guidance, I guess the range that you had set at the Analyst Day of twenty two to '20 '4, it kind of seems like you're going to come in towards the low end.

Speaker 5

Is there any reason or what would push that towards the higher end at this point?

Speaker 2

No. Look, what we said last time is that we're going to do 22,000,000,000 in three years. It's what we have. With that, I think we need to include Chile and I think we are okay with that. So we don't go into the high end.

Speaker 2

What I can tell you this year in all 2024 is we have less CapEx of what we budget. We have a very good revenue increase and we have a better cash flow than what we had been budgeted. So I think that's the trend that we had in 2024 and that's what we're looking to have in 2025. So we're being careful on CapEx, but we're investing where we think we need to invest to get more revenue. So that's the way we're looking and the numbers are there.

Speaker 2

BRL22 billion we said for three years. We are with that and that's more or less. Chile, I think, is going to require this year a little bit more on what we're going to have for the next year because we're finalizing what I said, the three year plan. But the rest, I think, we're okay. We are putting other thing that will be important is that we have also this year some spectrum renovations and acquire more five gs spectrum, but I think this year we'll finish almost everything on that.

Speaker 2

So also for next year 2026, I think spectrum and renovations will go also lower. So that's what I can see in the CapEx.

Speaker 5

Okay. And then either, I guess, Daniel or Oscar, T Mobile has started offering Starlink satellite to sell texting to its subscribers. And I believe last quarter, you mentioned that you were working with SpaceX and ASD. So have you guys started testing either or both of those? And can you provide an update on either of those tests?

Speaker 2

No. What we said is that we use these low orbit satellites to use for backbone is what I said. We are not working only with SpaceX. We're working with all of them, less with SpaceX than with the other one. So we're working more with OneWeb and the other one, I don't remember the name.

Speaker 2

ASD. ASD and we're working with them and we are Not directed to Yes, only for the backbone. We are not doing nothing directly to the phone at this moment and we're still looking and reviewing if that makes sense for us or not. So that's where we are. But right now we don't have anything on direct to the phone with any of the satellite companies, only doing for backbone in the rural areas where we think we needed where it's more expensive to put fiber or microwave then we put satellite.

Speaker 2

But that's more or less what we're doing.

Speaker 5

Okay, got it. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Marcelo Santos from JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Speaker 6

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity for taking questions. I have two. The first is on Mexican broadband. Could you please comment a bit on the pricing environment, if you plan to increase prices this year?

Speaker 6

I understand last year you kept your prices, so what's the outlook for this year? And the second question is about M and A. There is a discussion, at least when you read in the press, about potential M and A in Argentina. How do you feel about that? What is the appetite of American Mogul to see opportunities there?

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Speaker 2

Oscar can talk a little bit about the broadband.

Speaker 7

Yes, yes. In Mexico right now, we already have 85% of the customer connected with fiber. We don't see to increase the prices. What we did is to launch our new packages in the market for residential. I think it's very unique packages.

Speaker 7

We believe that this will boost our net adds this year. And it's a practice that includes Netflix of six months for free, includes Claro Video with Paramount and as well antivirus. It's a fully symmetrical connectivity with fiber. We include an email as well in the top also. So we are adding value to the connectivity.

Speaker 7

Another sector is that we are really focused on is in small business as well. And then we launched a packages that includes backup of information for the customers name. We design the web page for a small business. We deliver electronic bills for a small business for the same trend that we used to have adding value to the broadband connectivity. And as well on the corporate, we mentioned before, we are adding different services, cybersecurity, cloud, vertical and horizontal solutions for corporate market.

Speaker 7

So we believe with those, these bundle and packages, we are very well positioned in the market to expect an increase in net adds for this year.

Speaker 2

And on the Argentina, well, what I can tell you is that I read it also in the news this morning. We haven't talked with anyone on anything there. Of course, we are open. We are open always to see everything and let's see if there's synergies what makes sense for us, we can be open to review that. But we haven't talked with them and we haven't had anything at this moment.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Just to clarify on Oscar's answer, so you said you did not seek to increase prices, right? You launched the bundles, but on prices you did not seek to increase? Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Until now, we don't think to do it. We don't know if that makes sense

Speaker 3

at

Speaker 2

the mid or end of the year. But at this time, we haven't had anything on increasing prices.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Vitor Tomita from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Speaker 8

Hello, good morning all and thanks for taking our questions. We have two questions from my side. The first one is if you could give us some more color on how you see prepaid revenue trends in Mexico in more detail in terms of how much user how much users are recharging, how frequently they are recharging, how you are seeing those trends evolving? And our second question would be also related to prepaid in Mexico. If you could give us an update on how you have seen the competitive environment for prepaid in Mexico between the big operators and VNOs competition in general?

Speaker 8

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2

Well, talking a little bit about the competition in Mexico. Well, what we have been seeing, let's talk first about cost base. Cost base, we are doing very good. We are increasing revenue. I think the revenue we increased 5.7% something like that more than a year before and more than the second and third quarter of last year.

Speaker 2

So we in postpaid we're doing good. Why we're doing good? Well, we have we are moving also some customers from prepaid to postpaid. So and we are moving our postpaid from better plans and selling more things. So the ARPU that we have in Telcel is maybe in postpaid maybe 20% higher than our next competitor.

Speaker 2

So we have very good customers. We are they are in very good plans and we are doing very good in the postpaid side, okay. In the prepaid side what I'm seeing is I don't see any change on the competition, the same competitors that we have been having. I don't think they are more aggressive or less aggressive. They have been aggressive for maybe two, three years and still they are doing that.

Speaker 2

As I said, we are moving part of our prepaid base to post base. And the third one is we're seeing also a slowdown on the economy. I think that's very important. And when you see a slowdown in the economy of Mexico, then the first place where you see a slowdown is in recharge in prepaid. So that's what we're looking.

Speaker 2

No big changes in competition. We have the same. Maybe CFE is giving and promote some ships, but more than that we haven't seen anything else on that. And there's tough competition in Mexico, but it's not the last quarter, it has been there for the last two years. What we have been seeing is a slowdown in the economy and that is affects directly to the prepaid recharge that we have been having.

Speaker 2

So that's more or less what I'm seeing in the market in Mexico. So Oscar talked a little bit about the broadband. We're doing good. We're growing. We're moving to fiber.

Speaker 2

Postpaid we're also doing good. Moving subscriber to better plans. Moving the high end prepaid to the low end postpaid that it's been very successful around 85% of the people that we move stays in postpaid, so it's a very good number. So all overall, we are doing okay in that. And the second and very important that Oscar reminds me right now is that we have very by far the best network in Mexico.

Speaker 2

We are the only ones that have five gs, the real five gs. We have more than 100 cities, very well coverage, very good speed, good quality and well that's why we have the best postpaid customers right now.

Operator

The next question is from Andres Coelho from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

Speaker 9

Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. To Mexico, please. First, we saw last year two constitutional reforms, one given the CSC special legal status in Mexico. And there was also the reform that is going to merge two regulators into a single body.

Speaker 9

So, Daniela, I'm just wondering what you are seeing in terms of the regulatory environment in the country with these constitutional reforms? And perhaps more specifically, how do you see the company competing with the government, right? Because the government is now providing retail services, so you'll be on that. And my second question is on Telmex. There was a letter published by management and the union where Telmex says that this year they expect to win 2,000,000 broadband lines in Mexico and market share to reach 50%.

Speaker 9

So I'm just wondering if this is feasible, if you think that that is or perhaps too ambitious to think of 2,000,000 broadband additions in Mexico? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Well, of course, it's an internal budget that we have and of course we want to win if it's million or more than million. So all the commercial areas, marketing, people working in the streets are looking to grow is what we want. We want to increase our market share in Telmex. That's why we don't increase prices last year. We lose some market share in the previous years and we want to recuperate part of this market share and I'm happy that the union and all the people is focusing on making more broadband subscribers and winning more broadband.

Speaker 2

So I'm happy it's feasible well. All the budgets that we do are feasible. We don't know if the economy will allow us to do as much as that, but we want to do it. Maybe it could be around 150,000 per month. I don't know if we can do it, but we are looking to do that.

Speaker 2

We have enough fiber. We are also changing subscribers from copper to fiber. So there is still a lot of things that we have to do. As Oscar says, we have 85% of our subscriber broadband in fiber and it's a very good news. So if we look three years ago, I don't think we have those numbers.

Speaker 2

So we have been working very, very hard to move all our subscribers to fiber. So that's what we have. In terms of the IPL well, what we have been seeing is that right now they are looking for the secondary loss. They are moving on that. We don't know exactly what are going to be the secondary loss.

Speaker 2

We're waiting for that and CISO we're aiming to work with any I think part is going to go to economy, the other part is going to go to Accenture Digital and we are going to work with both to do that. If we are going to compete, hope that what the government is saying is that what they want to do is to give connectivity in the very, very rural area. So I hope they are working and doing to do connectivity in those rural areas. But that's more or less what I have then I don't know but that's what we have. There.

Speaker 9

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Alejandro Azar from GBM. Your line is now open.

Speaker 10

Hi. Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Two quick ones. One is on the cloud and corporate networks. If you can remind us how much that business grew in 2024?

Speaker 10

And if you can tell us from your $7,000,000,000, 7 point 5 billion dollars CapEx, how much is that directed to that business segment? And the other one would be on your pension plan, you mentioned $25,000,000,000 uses or cash outflows during 2024. My question would be if that is 100% cash flows and how should we think about your pension plan outflows in the next, let's say, I don't know, decade. Should that decline at some point and why? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Well, what I can tell you is that the segments that are growing more are postpaid and corporate, the corporate segment. Those are the two segments that are growing more in American Mobile. I think the corporate I think is growing around 15% something like that revenues. I think

Speaker 3

fixed exchange rate for everyone in Chile that's 12.3%. Twelve point three %, yes. And it's been accelerating. It was 7% in the second quarter, '10 percent in the third quarter and 12% in

Speaker 2

the fourth quarter. What is very important is we have been putting that good CapEx. It's difficult to divide what CapEx is for cloud and corporate and the other ones. But we have we're very well prepared in all Latin America to serve the corporate market to we have good sales people, we have data centers, we have good alliances. So we are very well prepared to grow in the corporate market.

Speaker 2

So I think we are I'm very confident that in the next years we are going to be a good player, a big player in the corporate market. And on the

Speaker 3

pension front, I think the price should be declining. I think we will expect to see still some outflows more or less of the same size as we had last year for some time or the next three years or so. And then we would expect them to be a little bit declining and that has to do with the overall trend. I think that we have reached the peak of pension payments and they will be trending down already. There is less people being pension, new people and some people that have pension that will cease to receive pensions at some point.

Speaker 3

Okay, so that's basically we can talk more about it in our next Investor Day program.

Speaker 10

Thank you. Thank you

Speaker 3

both. Thank you.

Operator

The next question The next question is from Fani Kanemuri from HSBC. Your line is now open.

Speaker 11

Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is related to the outlook for shareholder remuneration in 2025. Given the FX changes and increased CapEx, how do you see the outlook for shareholder remuneration in 2025? The second one is regarding how you feel about Brazil Mobile.

Speaker 11

Do you see the rationale market environment continuing there? And you have grown like 10% in 2024. Do you see that growth rate trending in the same range in 2025? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Well, on the first question, if you look at the basic trends that we are having today, we have had very solid revenue growth for a long time now. We have growth on both fixed and mobile, which we've been highlighting for quite some time. And this is already very well diversified. We are doing it in all the main countries and these blocks of countries like Central America and Eastern Europe. And what we are seeing is that on the back of very strong and consistent top line growth, we are also being able to reduce the CapEx intensity of the business given the important in terms that we've made in the past, including introducing all the necessary investments to be able to produce strategy basically in all our markets and also the spectrum that has to go with that.

Speaker 3

So all of that is behind us and that's why we have been able to reduce CapEx to sales intensity significantly, we expect it will be remaining in that position. So given what I've said, I think the outlook is for the possibility for free cash flow expansion with a position of leverage that will remain not far from where we are, okay. We are at 1.4 times net debt to EBITDA. It's right in the middle of the range where we wanted to be. So that you can run the numbers and you will see that we don't need more cash for debt and we don't need more cash for CapEx.

Speaker 3

That means that there is going to be more cash available for distributions.

Speaker 2

And on Brazil, I think we are like we have like 40% something like that 38% to 40% share of market in five gs. So we are one of the biggest in Brazil. We have a very good network, the fastest network, Anateli saying that we are the fastest network in Brazil and we have been growing market share in Brazil for in postpaid for some years. So, we are well prepared. We are investing and we have been had good results, very good management, good team, good synergies that we have been having.

Speaker 2

So, we are I think we can still do very good year. The next years we're going to be good in Brazil.

Speaker 11

Thanks everyone. This particular.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Gustavo Soria from UBS. Your line is now open.

Speaker 12

Hi, and thanks for taking my questions. I have two on my end. The first one regarding mobile competition in Brazil. We've seen a competitor that is not expect to raise from book prices in the first half of the year. So my question is if you could comment on how do you see competition in Brazil, do you see it worsening or not?

Speaker 12

And the second question is regarding the debt profile and how do you see it in the longer term? So how much if you have any target of how much of the debt you would like to see the negative in hot currencies as a percentage of total in five plus years from now? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Can you repeat the second question please? We don't hear you well.

Speaker 12

Regarding the debt profile, yes for sure. The debt profile, how do you see it in the longer term? How much of the debt you like to see denominated in hard currencies as a percentage of total?

Speaker 3

Well, on the debt composition, we've been, as you know, I think you have to distinguish between funding in the one hand and then the actual currency exposure that we regain. We've been funding increasingly in local currencies. We've been raising funds more than 1,000,000,000 over the last six months in various local markets here in Latin America. And what we do with the currency exposure, we expect to be managed through the derivatives and that basically is managed depending on our views of what the currencies are. So what I can tell you is that today the net exposure to dollars for instance is 32% for net debt and the net exposure to currencies to Europe not including Oscar would be about 10%.

Speaker 3

So that means that the net economic exposure is basically around 60% to local currencies today.

Speaker 2

And you are talking about Brazil, I think competition not only in Brazil, in all Latin America is we have a lot of competition there. We have let's say in Brazil we have Telefonica, we have TIM and then in Mobile and then we have all the new ones, the small ones that are growing. So, but well in telecommunications everybody knows that you have to have not it's not only price. When you compete only in price then I think you are going to lose value in the future. You need to compete with quality, with coverage, with good products and with customer care.

Speaker 2

So you need to do a lot of things and those means investments, CapEx and we have been doing that in Latin America for the last ten years or for the last twenty years. So I think we are well prepared to compete not only in price, but we have been digitalizing the company, working a lot on cost and expenses and that's well let's say in Colombia. Colombia we have nobody talks about Colombia, but we have a very good quarter. We start with revenues growing at the beginning of last year with 1%, two %. We're growing 8% in this quarter in prepaid.

Speaker 2

So we are doing good because we have the basis and we have the investments done and of course we have some competition on price then we have to do it, but then we return with good customers, good ARPUs, good products to sell there. So all around Latin America and Europe we have competitors, telecommunications is with a lot of competition, but we are well prepared to compete with them.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from Ernesto Gonzalez from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Speaker 13

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Two quick ones. Can you please discuss how you're seeing competitive dynamics in Colombia, which you started to mention a moment ago and also competitive dynamics in Chile? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Well, in Colombia I think Tiguan Telefonica are getting together the network. I don't know if they are going to allow them to consolidate and what the networks I think they are working and have a good network. I think it's good. They are going to save money. There is more stronger competitor that is good for us.

Speaker 2

And as I said, in Colombia, if you review the numbers that we had this quarter are very good and I think for 2025 we still think that we can increase and have better numbers. Revenue is growing and we are putting the market. Well, I don't know exactly what is going to happen. There's going to be a new investor in Guang. So we don't know exactly what they are going to do, but we are in a good position.

Speaker 2

And in Chile, I think in Chile we have a lot of competition, so different in broadband than in mobile. But what I can tell in Chile is we have been working in doing 2023 and 2024. We have a very good management. They are delivering what they promised. So we are in the numbers and the investments that we're doing are being good.

Speaker 2

And I think Chile this year we're going to consolidate all the synergies that we have between the two companies. We're going to have a much better network. We have very good team working there. So we think we're going to have a good one good numbers in Chile. Let's say in Chile, number portability, we have been gaining subscribers in number portability for the last six or seven months and that means that the network is working, that we have good plans and that we're doing okay.

Speaker 2

So we're okay and they are delivering what they are promising in

Speaker 4

Chile.

Speaker 6

We

Operator

have a question from Juan Cruz from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Speaker 14

Hi, good morning and thank you for the call. Just following up on the Chilean operation. Now that the Claro ETR has been formally incorporated into the results, when should we expect more disclosure as to both operationally and financially as to how the Chilean operation is doing going forward? And secondly, if you can tell us what the CapEx budget for Chile should be for 2025, if you have that number handy, it will be great. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Well, we will begin the distorting the Chilean results next quarter. Likely we will be distorting it together with both of other countries that are in the region, so putting them together, putting them with the so called Southern Cone countries, but I think that that's what we will be beginning to do beginning from the first quarter of twenty twenty five. And on the CapEx

Speaker 2

On the CapEx on Chile, we said that it's going to be around $250,000,000 this year to finalize everything that we have, change more to fiber, more coverage, more five gs. So that's more or less what we budget. We still haven't finished this budget, but we think that it will be like a $250,000,000, a little bit more, a little bit less on CapEx for 2025.

Speaker 13

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

We have a question from Ritu Salafi from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Speaker 15

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Federico Velasi from Rockadin Group. Two questions regarding to Mexico. The first one is, how do you see the competition of the MVNO of Walmex that they have like 15,000,000 clients in the last two years?

Speaker 15

Obviously, it's in the low end of the range. And the second question, if I may, is how do you we can see lower revenues in equipment sales. Do you believe that this trend will continue? Thank you so much.

Speaker 2

Yes, that's right. We reduce the revenues on equipment. I think also it's a little bit of what we talk about economy. The economy is slowing a little bit down. So that's and the other thing is all these revenue are based in dollars.

Speaker 2

So the dollar moves from 17 in June to 20.5 in December. So equipment gets a little bit more expensive. So that's why we'll reduce some revenues on that. On Walmart, it's a good competitor, a strong competitor. They have good distribution and well, it's not new.

Speaker 2

As you said, they are going to the low. They have with 40,000,000 subscribers. There are two I don't know exactly the revenues, but the last time that we see the revenues and the ARPU is very low. So I don't know if they really have million or not. We don't know.

Speaker 2

But it's more competition in Mexico, nothing new. We have been dealing with Walmart for the last two years with CFP also and then we have Telefonica and then we have AT and T, so a lot of competition in Mexico, but nothing new. So that's what we have been having for the last year. So that's and still we're going to have competition this year, hope that the economy can return and be stronger in the next months, but still we are seeing that slowdown in the economy is hurting a little bit the prepaid subscribers.

Speaker 15

Thank you so much.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have no further questions. So I'd like to hand the call back to Mr. Daniel Hash to conclude.

Speaker 2

I want to thank everyone for being in the call and see you next quarter. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now

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Earnings Conference Call
América Móvil Q4 2024
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