AMX America Movil SAB de CV

MEXICO CITY—Mexican telecommunications company Amé rica Mó vil SAB said Thursday that its net profit fell 45% in the second quarter as operating gains declined, especially in Mexico, and financial costs rose from a year before.

The company controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim reported net profit of 7.7 billion Mexican pesos ($407.6 million), compared with 14 billion pesos in the second quarter of 2015.

Revenue in the April-June period was up 6.1% from the second quarter of 2015 at 233.4 billion pesos, while operating cash flow measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, fell 11% to 61 billion pesos.

"Substantially all our operations maintained their growth trends in local currency terms," Amé rica Mó vil said. "In Mexico, however, we saw a step down in revenues brought about mostly by more aggressive commercial plans in the prepaid segment as a greater part of our subscribers moved towards unlimited call plans."

Amé rica Mó vil lost one million wireless subscribers in the quarter, mostly in Brazil, and ended June with 282.9 million, including 73.1 million in Mexico and 64.3 million in Brazil. Disconnections of prepaid subscribers were partly offset by gains in postpaid clients.

Subscriptions to fixed-line services including phone, broadband internet and television rose by 334,000 to 81.7 million.

In Mexico, where wireless unit Telcel competes with AT&T Inc. and Spain's Telefó nica SA, Amé rica Mó vil reported a 17% drop in mobile service revenue, partly offset by higher equipment revenue. Ebitda in Mexico fell 24%.

AT&T, which entered the Mexican wireless market last year with a $4.4 billion acquisition of two smaller operators, said last week it had close to 10 million mobile subscribers in Mexico at the end of June after adding 779,000 in the second quarter. The U.S. giant reported wireless revenue in Mexico of $606 million in the quarter, but an operating loss of $225 million as it invests to expand its high-speed mobile network to reach 100 million people by 2018.

Telefó nica reported 25.9 million wireless subscribers in Mexico at the end of June, 12% more than a year earlier, and revenues of $374 million in the quarter.

In Brazil, Amé rica Mó vil's second-quarter revenue was stable against the year-earlier period as gains in fixed-line revenue compensated for lower mobile service revenue. Ebitda in Brazil fell 4.5%.

Profits fell short of the median estimates of six analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal, who expected net profit of 10.4 billion pesos and Ebitda of 64.9 billion pesos. Revenue was above the estimate of 229.9 billion pesos.

Amé rica Mó vil's shares fell 2.7% Thursday on the Mexican stock exchange ahead of the report, and are down 24% in the past year.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2016 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)

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