By Anthony Harrup
MEXICO CITY--Mexican telecommunications company América Móvil
said Wednesday it will submit a plan to shareholders this month to
spin off certain mobile assets into a separate company, part of a
restructuring plan it devised last year in response to strict
regulations imposed under new telecom laws.
In a filing with the Mexican stock exchange, América Móvil said
the assets to be spun off comprise mostly "passive infrastructure"
used by its wireless operations in Mexico.
The company, controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, said last
year that it will spin off its cellular towers in Mexico--around
11,000 of them--into a separate company, which will then lease
capacity on the towers to third-party operators. Chief Executive
Daniel Hajj has said he expects the spinoff to occur in May or
June.
The shareholder meeting is scheduled for April 17.
América Móvil is the dominant fixed-line and mobile
telecommunications company in Mexico, with a market share around
70%. Under laws passed last year, the company faces regulations
including the elimination of mobile roaming charges and of fees for
completing incoming calls from rivals on its mobile network.
América Móvil also plans to sell assets to lower its market
share to less than 50%, which is the threshold for dominance
measures to apply. The company gave no details of any progress in
that process, but has reiterated recently that it is considering
all options to reduce its market share.
Mobile unit Telcel, which has about 70 million wireless
subscribers, has recently signed agreements with two Mexican
companies that will lease space on its network to offer their own
wireless service as mobile virtual network operators, the first
MVNOs to use the América Móvil network. They are fixed-line phone
company Axtel and a unit of retail and banking concern Grupo
Elektra.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
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