Commission File Number: 1-16269

 

 

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports
under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F. 
Form 20-F ___X___ Form 40-F _______

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is submitting this Form 6-K in paper as
permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1):
Yes _______ No ___X____

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is submitting this Form 6-K in paper as
permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7):
Yes _______ No ___X____

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form 6-K is also thereby furnishing the information to the
Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Yes _______ No ___X____

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AMÉRICA MÓVIL’S SECOND QUARTER OF 2014

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING REPORT

 

Mexico City, July 21, 2014 - América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (“América Móvil”) [BMV: AMX] [NYSE: AMX] [NASDAQ: AMOV] [LATIBEX: XAMXL], announced today its financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2014.

 

•        América Móvil continues to move ahead with its investment program geared towards convergence throughout the region, seeking to substantially increase the speed and capacity of our fixed and mobile networks. For this purpose we are deploying fiber optic networks across the board as well as cable to the home. On the mobile front we are rolling out 4G networks in various countries, growing our 3G footprint, and broadening the reach of fiber connections available to our cell sites. The submarine cable we built to link the South American block through Fortaleza in Brazil to the Caribbean, and Yucatan to Florida will begin operations this quarter.  

 

•        América Móvil had 338.7 million accesses at the end of June, 3.0% more than a year before. This figure includes 31.6 million landlines, 20.0 million broadband accesses, 20.3 million PayTV units, and 266.9 million wireless subscribers. The latter considers in most of our markets all clients that have remained active for at least 30 days originating or receiving calls.

 

•        Our wireless subscriber base rose 1.8% from the year before while our fixed-RGUs, which reached 71.8 million at the end of June rose 7.5%. We added 1.2 million RGUs in the quarter of which 608 thousand were PayTV units and 364 thousand broadband accesses.

 

•        Second quarter revenues of 202.6 billion pesos were up 4.0% year-on-year. At constant exchange rates, service revenues were up 5.8% driven by both mobile data revenues and PayTV revenues.

 

•        EBITDA of 66.6 billion pesos was up 2.4% in peso terms and 4.7% at constant exchange rates. The EBITDA margin for the quarter came in at 32.9%.

 

•        We obtained an operating profit of 39.2 billion pesos. It was down 3.3% year-on-year due to an increase of depreciation and amortization charges linked to higher levels of investment.

 

•        Our comprehensive financing cost was down 34.3% to 13.7 billion pesos as we obtained a foreign exchange profit of 3.1 billion in the quarter. Net income expanded 32.7% year-on-year to 18.8 billion pesos. It was equivalent to 27 peso cents per share or 42 dollar cents per ADR. 

 

•        Since December we obtained 5.7 billion pesos in net proceeds from the sale of part of our stake in KPN and the purchase of ownership interests in TKA and Start Wireless Group. This, together with our cash flow, allowed us to fund capital expenditures of 45.6 billion pesos, to reduce our net debt by 30.9 billion pesos to 412.3 billion pesos, and to buy back 15.9 billion pesos of our own stock. 

 

 

 

 

 

Relevant Events

 

On May 15th, we launched a public tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Telekom Austria (TKA) not held by OIAG. The offer expired on July 10th and AMX obtained almost 104 million shares, equivalent to 23.47% of the share capital of Telekom Austria, at a cost of 743.4 million euros. AMX now holds a stake of approximately 50.80% in the Austrian operator. Before the expiration of the offer we had met all the regulatory conditions in Austria and 6 other countries in Central Europe where TKA operates.

 

On June 27th, our Board of Directors authorized Inmobiliaria Carso and Control Empresarial de Capitales, both of which are AMX’ shareholders, to acquire from AT&T 5,739,341,928 Series “AA” shares representing 23.81% of AMX’s voting stock or 8.27% of our capital stock.

 

On July 8th, we were authorized by our Board of Directors to implement various measures to reduce our national market share in the Mexican telecommunications market to under 50% in order to cease to be a “preponderant economic agent”. It is desired that the assets be sold to a strong carrier willing to invest and compete in the Mexican market. The sale of Telcel’s and Telmex’ assets is contingent upon AMX receiving the necessary assurances from the Mexican regulator to the effect that it would no longer be subject to specific asymmetric regulation and that it would be allowed to provide convergent services. It is also contingent upon the assets being sold at market conditions. The Board also decided that all cellular sites, including towers and related passive infrastructure, are to be separated from Telcel for their corresponding operation and commercialization to all interested parties.

 

 

 

Total Accesses

 

At the end of June we had 338.7 million accesses, 3.0% more than a year before. This figure includes 266.9 million wireless subscribers, 31.6 million landlines, 20.0 million broadband accesses and 20.3 million PayTV units. On the fixed-line division, RGUs were up 7.5% over the prior year with PayTV rising 13.7%, whereas on the wireless platform our subscriber base increased 1.8%. Our largest operation, Brazil, reached 103.3 million accesses in June reflecting an increase of 6.2% compared with the year before.

 

 

Wireless Subscribers

 

Our wireless subscriber base finished June with 266.9 million clients, 1.8% more than a year before. In the postpaid segment, we reached 43.9 million subscribers by the end of the quarter, 7.8% more than in the year-earlier quarter after net gains of 524 thousand subscribers, including 207 thousand in Brazil and 121 thousand in Mexico.

 

Mexico represents around 27% of our wireless subscriber base, followed by Brazil at 26%, with Colombia accounting for almost 11% of our clients and the U.S. 9.6%. The Argentinean and the Central America-Caribbean blocks represent 8.2% and 7.6%, respectively, while Ecuador and Peru contribute 4.5% each.

 

 

 

Fixed Revenue Generating Units

 

Our fixed-RGUs reached 71.8 million at the end of June having increased by 1.2 million new accesses in the quarter. Half of the new RGUs are PayTV units—our fastest-growing division—while 364 thousand were broadband accesses. In our international markets we added 309 thousand landlines.

 

Following a 12.2% increase in our Brazilian base to 34.5 million units at the end of June, Brazil concentrates 48% of our fixed-RGUs, with PayTV and broadband accesses rising 14%, and fixed-voice accesses growing 8.2%. It is important to highlight that 68.1% of our new accesses in Brazil were bundled under triple-play packages.

 

In Mexico our fixed RGUs represent 31% of the total. We continued to lose voice lines, but managed to increase our broadband base by 3.7% year-on-year.

 

Our operations in Central America-Caribbean accounted for 9% of our fixed clients and those in Colombia for 7%. The former increased 6.9% from the prior year while the latter increased 12.3%.

 

 

 

EBITDA came in at 66.6 billion pesos in the second quarter. It was up 2.4% year-on-year in nominal peso terms and 4.7% at constant exchange rates. We obtained an operating profit of 39.2 billion pesos that was 3.3% down from the year-earlier quarter on account of depreciation and amortization charges increasing 12.0% in the period. The increase in depreciation charges reflects our increased levels of investment practically across the board.

 

Our comprehensive financing cost was down 34.3% from the year before to 13.7 billion pesos even though net interest expenses were up 16.3% because of higher levels of net debt. But this quarter we obtained a foreign exchange profit of 3.1 billion pesos as compared to a loss in the year-earlier quarter. Other financial expenses totaled 9.9 billion pesos, including a 3.7 billion pesos charge associated with the sale of a part of our KPN stake.

 

Our net income reached 18.8 billion pesos, equivalent to 27 peso cents per share or 42 dollar cents per ADR. It was up 32.7% year-on-year.

 

 

 

We obtained 5.7 billion pesos in net proceeds from the sale of part of our stake in KPN and the purchase of ownership interests in TKA and Start Wireless among others. This, together with our cash flow, allowed us to fund capital expenditures in the amount of 45.6 billion pesos, buy back 15.9 billion pesos worth of our own stock and reduce our net debt by 30.9 billion pesos (in flow terms) since last December to 412.3 billion pesos. Our net debt to EBITDA ratio at the end of June (last twelve months) was 1.53 times.

 

 

 

 

Second quarter revenues of 69.7 billion pesos were up 0.2% from the prior year with service revenues increasing 0.9% as data-revenue growth on both the mobile and fixed platform slightly outweighed the decline of voice revenues on both platforms.  Mobile-voice revenues were down, -8.7% year-on-year, on account of the new regulatory measures implemented in the second quarter, with Telcel canceling from April 6th national roaming charges and reducing the termination rate charged to its competitors by 34%.

 

Although still declining, fixed-voice revenues continued to recover, with the rate of decline diminishing from -8.5% in the second quarter of 2013 to -3.4% in the last quarter. Data revenues continued to accelerate on both platforms, reaching a rate of growth of 15.3% in the mobile one and of 7.4% in the fixed one.

 

At 30.4 billion pesos our EBITDA was 1.8% lower than in the year earlier quarter. The reduction in EBITDA is for the most part due to the enactment of the new regulatory measures.

 

 

 

Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay

 

Our combined operations in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay ended June with 21.9 million wireless subscribers, 1.7% more than a year before. On the fixed line front we had 583 thousand RGUs, 20.0% above the prior year.

 

Second quarter revenues of 5.9 billion Argentinean pesos were 41.3% higher than in 2013. Equipment revenues for the period climbed 128.4% and wireless service revenues 23.2%. Mobile data revenues increased 38.7% over the year and now represent 45.7% of service revenues. On the fixed-line front, revenues for the quarter of 412 million Argentinean pesos were 54.2% higher than those obtained a year ago, driven by the growth of our PayTV business in Paraguay.

 

EBITDA was up 38.8% year-on-year to 1.9 billion Argentinean pesos. The EBITDA margin came in at 32.6% of revenues, slightly below that of the prior year.

 

 

 

Brazil

 

We had 103.3 million accesses in Brazil at the end of June including 34.5 million fixed RGUs, 12.2% more than a year before, after adding 500 thousand PayTV units, 217 thousand broadband accesses and 189 thousand landlines in the quarter. Our wireless subscriber base totaled 68.8 million having risen 3.5% year-on-year. We gained 207 thousand postpaid clients in the second quarter, which contributed to an 8.1% year-on-year increase in our contract base. 

 

Second quarter revenues were up 8.5% to 8.8 billion reais driven by mobile data, PayTV and broadband revenues that increased 23.8%, 18.6% and 14.4% respectively. Wire-line voice revenues exhibited a 1.2% increase after two years of posting revenue declines. Wireless voice revenues declined sharply primarily as a result of the 25% cut in mobile termination rates that became effective in February and, to a lesser extent, to the fact that we had fewer business days in June due to the World Cup.

 

At 2.3 billion reais, EBITDA soared 18.9% over the prior year. The EBITDA margin climbed 2.2 percentage points from the year-earlier quarter to 25.5% of revenues. We have experienced steady improvements in EBITDA coming from reductions in maintenance costs and leased lines as we have come to finish many of the investment projects we embarked on in the last three years and that had an impact on operating expenses.

 

We have the broadest 4G-LTE coverage in Brazil. In April we opened up our networks to prepaid clients that may now benefit from better and faster value-added services.

 

 

 

 

Colombia

 

At 29.1 million at the end of June, our wireless subscriber base was up 4.7% from the prior year with our postpaid base expanding at a somewhat faster rate, 5.7%. Fixed RGUs increased 12.3% in the period to 5.1 million RGUs, as broadband and voice-accesses climbed 19%.

 

Revenues of 2.8 trillion Colombian pesos were 4.8% higher than in the year-earlier quarter, with equipment revenues up 41.0% and service revenues declining 2.7%. The contraction of wireless service revenues is linked to the introduction of more competitive plans and to the implementation of certain regulatory measures. On the fixed platform, revenues of 582 billion Colombian pesos were up 13.4% relative to the year before with fixed-data revenues rising 15.4%, which reflects a 17.5% increase of revenues obtained from corporate data solutions.

 

EBITDA for the quarter, 1.2 trillion Colombian pesos, was down 12.2% from the prior year. The annual comparison is affected by the fact that in the second quarter of 2013 we had booked extraordinary revenues associated with a tax adjustment. Correcting for it the EBITDA decline would have been 6.9%. 

 

 

 

 

 

Chile

 

We finished June with 5.8 million wireless clients, with our postpaid subscriber base increasing almost 10% annually. On the fixed-line platform we had 1.2 million fixed RGUs, 5.8% more than a year ago.

 

Revenues declined 9.3% from the year-earlier quarter to 176.2 billion Chilean pesos dragged by a contraction of 24.3% in wireless voice revenues. The reduction is linked to a 75% cut in mobile termination rates. Data revenues were up 23.6% over the year and now represent 34.6% of service revenues. Fixed-line revenues—which account for one third of the total— were up 7.9% driven by broadband and PayTV revenue-growth of 15.5% and 12.8%, respectively.

 

EBITDA shot up 57.0% to 13.6 billion Chilean pesos reflecting among other things a greater reduction in termination costs.

 

 

 

 

Ecuador

 

We added 80 thousand wireless subscribers in the second quarter—including 47 thousand postpaid clients—to finish June with 12.2 million wireless subscribers, 4.5% more than a year before. Our postpaid subscriber base was up 9.4% year-on-year. Fixed RGUs, 333 thousand, exceeded by 20.3% those of the same period of the precedent year.

 

Our revenues, 434 million dollars in the quarter, were 0.4% higher than a year before. Wireless service revenues increased by 3.2% annually as data revenues—which already represent 40% of service revenues—expanded by 13.0%. Fixed-line revenues grew 10.3% annually to 16 million dollars.

 

EBITDA for the quarter was 193 million dollars, equivalent to 44.4% of revenues.

 

Peru

 

After net additions of 55 thousand subscribers in the second quarter we ended June with 12.1 million wireless clients in Peru. Our wireless subscriber base was up 7.8% annually while that of the postpaid segment presented an increase of 18.9%. On the fixed-line platform RGUs expanded 23.2% year-on-year to 1.1 million, with broadband accesses soaring by 45.0%.

 

Second quarter revenues came in at 1.3 billion soles and were 9.5% higher than in the same period of 2013. Wireless service revenues increased 7.2% on the back of data revenue growth of 21.4%. Data—which now represents 31.8% of service revenues—was key for bringing about an increase of 8.3% in ARPU, even in spite of a 10.5% reduction in the average price per minute of voice. Fixed-line revenues, albeit small, increased 21.1% over the year to 173 million soles.

 

Our EBITDA, 492 million soles in the quarter, was 10.3% higher than in 2013. The EBITDA margin came in at 38.1% of revenues, slightly above last year’s.

 

In May we launched 4G-LTE services in the city of Lima in the 1900MHz band. We will continue with our efforts to find the means to launch our new services in the rest of the country since we are working with limited spectrum resources.