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Good morning. My name is Denise, and I will be your conference operator today.
At this time, I would like to welcome, everyone, to the América Móvil Second Quarter 2019 Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.
Now I will turn the call over to Ms. Daniela Lecuona, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter financial and operating results. We have on the line, Mr. Daniel Hajj, CEO; Mr. Carlos García Moreno, CFO; and Mr. Oscar Von Hauske, COO.
Hi, Daniela, hi, everyone, thank you for being in América Móvil second quarter of 2019 report and Carlos is going to make the summary of the results.
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Well, in the quarter new uncertainty regarding trade flows in the context of the so-called trade wars with China helped bring about a greater deceleration in global economic activity with 10-year U.S. Treasury interest rates continuing to fall in the latter part of the quarter. They ended June, roughly 40 basis points below where they had been at the beginning of the quarter.
Even though U.S. interest rates were not expected to keep on rising, but were seen as falling in the latter months of the year, the U.S. dollar remained strong versus most currencies. Only the Mexican peso held its ground, appreciating in the second quarter against practically all the currencies in the region: 1.3% versus the dollar, 7.6% versus the euro, 10.3% versus the Brazilian real, 15.6% versus the Colombian peso and 90% versus the Argentinian peso.
We added 1.6 million wireless postpaid subscribers in the second quarter, more than half of which came from Brazil with Austria and Mexico contributing approximately 200,000 subscribers each. We also disconnected 1.2 million prepaid subscribers in the period, including
[Technical Difficulty]
399,000 in Nicaragua.
On the fixed line platform RGUs increased by 119,000 clients with 369,000 new broadband accesses, 1/3 of which came from Central America, with Brazil contributing 81,000 clients and Colombia 49,000 and a decline of 157,000 voice access. At 7.2% and 6.0% year-on-year, mobile postpaid and fixed-broadband remained the main drivers of access growth with mobile prepaid and PayTV declining 3.4% and 1.9% year-on-year. Fixed voice accesses were almost flat from a year before.
Before going on to the financial results, it is important to highlight that Argentina has deemed to be a hyperinflationary economy and because of it, the financial results are to be presented in constant Argentinian peso terms. For purposes of our consolidated results, those results must be translated into Mexican pesos using the closing exchange rate of the relevant period. To ensure consistency in all our comparisons of consolidated figures that are done at constant exchange rates, we will exclude Argentina from our consolidated figures. For reference, it must be said that in the second quarter, with nominal values that is with no inflationary adjustments and at average market exchange rates, Argentina would account for 3.4% of the total revenues of the company.
Second quarter revenues totaled MXN 250 billion, and our EBITDA MXN 78 billion, it is under IFRS 16. Both our service revenues and our organic EBITDA declined in Mexican peso terms from the year earlier quarter, 3.1% and 2.8%, respectively, reflecting the fact that the results of our International operations had fallen in Mexican peso terms on account of the strength of the peso.
At constant exchange rates, again excluding Argentina, and as you can see in the slides, those of you that are looking at the presentation, you can see that service revenues were seen to accelerate, expanding from 0.8% in the first quarter to 2.3% in the second one. Organic EBITDA growth also picked up to 3.5% in the second quarter from minus 0.1% in the preceding one.
Mobile service revenues were the main driver of revenue expansion, nearly doubling from 2.9% in the first quarter to 4.7% in the second one. And then, fixed service revenues also improved reducing their decline from minus 1.2% in the first quarter to minus 0.4%. So we are seeing a strong growth in mobile and an improvement in fixed service revenues that are declining less rapidly than they used to be.
The fastest-growing business lines by revenues were fixed-broadband at 7.7% year-on-year and mobile postpaid at 6.3%, as you can see in the slide. Prepaid revenue growth also picked up to 3.4%, as did that of corporate networks at 4.6%. On the other hand, the decline of PayTV and fixed-voice revenues continued their decline.
Mobile service revenues, again as you can see in the slide, rose very rapidly in Mexico 8.3%, Brazil 8.9%, 6.9% in Dominican Republic and 3.3% in Colombia. And even in the U.S., where we are seeing nice ARPU gains. We've seen an increase of 1.4%, but we did see some declines in Peru and Chile, mostly brought about by the reduction in interconnection rates that took place earlier in the year, Okay.
On the fixed revenue platform, we saw revenues increasing 8.5% in Colombia, 4.9% in Ecuador and 2.4% in the Dominican Republic. But also we have seen an improvement in the case of Mexico, where we are now falling 1.3% compared to a decline of 4.5% that we had in the prior quarter. So we are seeing again in some cases, very significant growth rates and where we had some declines, we are seeing less important decline with turnaround.
EBITDA growth was -- we mentioned 3.5% at constant exchange rates compared to a decline of minus 0.1% in the first quarter, but EBITDA growth accelerated sharply in Mexico to 4.7% and improved noticeably in Colombia and Ecuador to 8.4% and 6.9%, respectively. You see increases in the Dominican Republic that increased 6.4%, in Brazil 4.7%, and in the U.S., 8.2%. So very good increases of EBITDA in the main markets of the company.
I am not mentioning Austria because Austria fell after restructuring costs, but if you consider the results before restructuring costs, they had an increase of about 3.5%.
So our operating profits were up 7.7% to MXN 37 billion. Whereas our comprehensive financing cost of MXN 12 billion were down 63% from the prior year. Thanks to having posted a MXN 1.2 billion (sic) [ MXN 2.2 billion ] foreign exchange profit this quarter compared to MXN 30 billion loss last year in the same period. The foreign exchange gains were instrumental in our turning a MXN 14 billion net profit in the period, that is the foreign exchange gains and our operating profits helped us come up with a net profit in the period, as you can see in the slide.
Our net debt ended June of MXN 686 billion, including the capitalized portion of our lease obligations per IFRS 16. Excluding these, the debt stood at MXN 570 billion, which is roughly flat relative to a year before. In cash flow terms, our net debt did increased MXN 19 billion in 6 months to June, partly to form the acquisition of the Guatemala operations from Telefónica.
Our outlays totaled MXN 92 billion and they include capital expenditures of MXN 66 billion, acquisitions of MXN 6 billion and contributions to pension funds in the amounts of MXN 12 billion. In addition, we had about MXN 7 billion in the shareholder distributions.
And finally, you can see here in the slide that our leverage ratio ended up this quarter practically unchanged from the prior quarter at 1.98x net debt-to-EBITDA. We still feel that we are much in track to continue to reduce the leverage ratio throughout this year. And depending on whether we have the acquisition of Nextel closing this year or not, we might end up having a greater reduction of leverage than we were expecting initially.
So that's what I would have to say. I would like to have the microphone back to Daniel for the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos.
Okay. We can begin taking the questions.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Rodrigo Villanueva from Merrill Lynch.
My first question is related to the economic environment in Mexico. I was wondering if you expect a negative impact in your Mexican operations as a result of the deteriorating economic outlook. And the second question is related to ARPU in Mexico at MXN 149 and increasing by 6% year-on-year. I was wondering if it's mostly related to higher usage or also the price increases implemented during the quarter in line with what AT&T has been doing.
Okay. Hello, Rodrigo. On the question of the economic activity, well, as you pointed out there, has been some recent numbers that have shown the industrial production coming down a bit and the GDP figure, I think, for the first quarter was little bit weaker than expected. But fact of the matter is that a lot of this has been very much limited to mining and construction. That's been the sectors that had been more affected and the consensus economic growth expected for the country. And I just checked it yesterday, it's still around 1.5% for the year, Okay. This is the most recent consensus, which is down from about 2% at the beginning of the year, but still not too bad. So I think it's partly to do with what happens with oil production, which is important in the figures, but it's probably not that important directly in the economy.
And it is the case that in the market we have seen, as you are seeing now in the report, good increases in revenues and EBITDA and this is very much driven by consumption. I think that we have announced in the quarterly report, where we basically say that the data consumption per client in Mexico has increased by 120% year-on-year and that the MOUs have also continued increasing significantly, at the end they have reached past hundred-and-something minutes, past 150 minutes, which makes it the most significant consumption of both in all of Latin America.
To add a little bit more on what Carlos is saying, and also remember that the telecom sector is a very defensive sector. So it's important to know that I think telecom has become very important for the people and this is still using what Carlos is saying megabytes of use in Mexico increased around 120% and ARPU 6.2%, as you are saying, minutes of usage.
And all overall, what I can tell you about Mexico is that Telcel and Telmex have substantially increased their investments here. So Telmex is increasing their fiber, putting Fiber to the Curb, fiber to the house. So we want to increase the speeds and give more capacity to all of our broadband clients. And in Telcel, what we want is, we're putting more 4.5G quality and we want to connect more cities and more locations in the south of Mexico. So we're putting more money to invest and to have more connectivity in the South, all Mexico and specifically more in the south of Mexico. So we still have the best network, the best quality, the best customer care centers attention. So all overall, the preference of the Mexicans are for Telcel at this time.
So it's little bit in the market. I don't see a lot of increase in prices. We have been increasing a little bit in the prepaid side in our case, reducing one day in one card, but in the postpaid, we are not doing anything. We're still having the same prices and that's what we have been seeing. Sometimes we have some increase on prices, but then in the market, we see some promotions of our competitors. So it's very difficult to understand exactly what is happening in Brazil. Everybody is saying that they are increasing prices, but when you go to the market, then, the promotions are reducing in Brazil also. So talking about Mexico, I think the investments that we have been putting here are working very good, Rodrigo.
Your next question comes from Leonardo Olmos with Santander.
All my questions are related to Brazil. The first one is related to fixed broadband. If you could give us an update in the context of Oi strategic plan they released yesterday. We noticed a reduction in the loss of subscribers, which was good for [ finance of ] Claro. But looking ahead, what are the main challenges from the competition because it could be Oi, it could be the regional players. What do you see are main challenges for that throughout in Brazil?
Well, let's talk a little bit about Brazil and divide it in 2. The first, talking about the wireless side, I think we have been doing very good. Prepaid revenues growing 3%, postpaid revenues growing 11%. I think for the last 6 or 7 quarters, we have been growing very strongly our wireless revenue and the network is improving a lot. The coverage has been improving also. We have been awarded by one of the best networks in Brazil. So the investments that we have been putting in Brazil in the wireless side had been good and we have been growing very, very good in the postpaid and prepaid side.
In the fixed side, I think broadband has been growing also. We have been growing 13% revenues in broadband and it's good market. I think we are a little bit behind our budget in broadband, but I hope we can do our budget this year and still it would be very, very -- the growth in broadband, I think, is going to be -- we have been having mainly more than 50% of the market share of the ultrabroadband customers. So in that case, all the ultrabroadband customers that we have been having are being consuming very well and they are very happy. We have more than, I think more than 5 million customers with high-speed broadband. So the competition will -- Oscar can talk a little bit more on the competition, on the broadband with this small players that we're having all around Brazil, but I think we are doing good.
And on the voice, in the fixed voice, I think we are starting to reduce the decline that we have been having in the last quarters. Yes, it's almost finished this long distance and this type of services that we're having so yes, it's mainly stable. We are not losing too much more. And in the TV, the TV is the one that is losing a little bit. We are losing not too much subscribers, but the ARPU is reducing a little bit because of the competition and it is what is happening all around the world. So people want to have less channels, more broadband, Netflix and other streaming services. So all around is reducing our ARPU, but I think we can sustain that for the next year. So Oscar can talk a little bit about what is happening in the market in the fixed-broadband.
Yes, as Daniel mentioned, there is this what is called the smart players. They are growing very rapidly in the areas where we don't have network. If we look at our network, we have our HFC network cable ready with DOCSIS 3.0 and we can move easily to DOCSIS 3.1 to deliver really, really high speeds and all the new homes that we are doing in Brazil, we are doing with the fiber. We are using GPON technology. As Daniel mentioned, on the ultrabroadband, we have more than 50% of market share. So I think that we have a good neck -- got well positioned in the market in Brazil. We know that our competitors are building fiber as well. So it's a very competitive environment, but we think we have the right infrastructure to be a good player in the market.
We're going to do around 1 million houses.
1.5 million, in fiber.
1.5 million houses in fiber in Brazil this year.
That's a good number. That's useful. It's good that you mentioned the mobile part, Daniel, because I was going to ask you what's going to be my follow-up question. Once again, you had a very strong addition of postpaid. You mentioned on the earnings release that it's mostly related to prepaid upgrades. But my question is, now that you are going to unify the brands all below Claro, do you think that 4G bundles will be -- will play an even more important role in the growth of postpaid mobile?
We are unifying our brand. The name of the brand is going to be all the -- let's say massive or residential and prepaid, postpaid is going to be Claro. Still we're thinking on the corporate side that is Embratel. But all overall, the brand is going to be -- the brand in Brazil, it's going to be Claro. We have our Combo Multi that is leading conversions on the fixed and mobile services delivering the best value proposition in the market and delivering the most complete and convenient solution for all our customers.
Also, if you can see, the churns have been going down as it's been very good, very good churn. So what Oscar is saying, we have a very good platform in Brazil. We have been investing for the last 8 years, improving and increasing our investments in the last 3 years. So we have a very competitive network in the wireless side right now and in the fixed side we are still growing and still very comfortable on what we have.
Your next question comes from Fred Mendes with Bradesco.
I have 2 questions as well. The first one is more of a follow-up on the last one, particularly on the prepaid on Brazil. The other players, they are showing like a double-digit drop year-over-year and you're going on the other direction. You actually showed like 2% growth, which is quite interesting. So just trying to get a little bit more of color here. What you believe is the main point of such a difference? Of course, you're reporting stronger results than the other players, but I think particularly on the prepaid that definitely calls the attention. Then as a follow up, if you believe that the price they are on a sustainable level, this will be my first one. And then the second one on Mexico, particularly Telmex. How has the competition behaved in the fixed segment, especially your strategy in terms of price and it looks like Telmex being a little bit more aggressive on price. And finally, if you can give us an update about the potential PayTV license, this will be great.
The first one on the Brazil side, well, what you are saying is true. We have been growing in postpaid but also in prepaid and beating our competitors there. And I just want to tell you that I think mainly is because we are having a very strong network. So we are doing a lot investments in capacity, a lot investments in quality and that is helping us to give a very good service. So I -- again, I don't want to talk about my competitors, but I think we have a much better network, quality, capacity, coverage -- in some cases, coverage than our main competitors in prepaid. So that's why we are growing.
Even though I think they are -- in some cases with some packages, they are a little bit more aggressive than us in prices. And I was in Brazil, last week, in the last 2 weeks ago. And I looked at the packages, they have some packages for 15 days. We don't have packages of 15 days. So they are being very, very aggressive in some packages, but we feel very comfortable with the network and with the brand, and distribution also has been good. So that's I think mainly why we are really growing in the prepaid side.
In Mexico, you talk a little bit about Telmex. And what I can say is, again, is that Telcel and Telmex have been really substantially increasing the investments here. So in Telmex, specifically, Oscar can talk a little bit where we are going and what investments we are doing, but we are mostly putting fiber all around Mexico. And, yes, we have been a little bit more aggressive in the broadband side and we have been growing this year. We have been having around 100,000 new broadband subscribers. Still we are not gaining market share. But I think that we are on track to, again, starting to gain market share. But Oscar can talk a little bit about the network in Mexico.
Sure. What we are doing in Mexico is, we have Fiber to the Home. We have almost 5 million home passes with Fiber to the Home. And then the rest, we are doing Fiber to the Curb in order to use the best technologies using copper. So we are using VDSL and pair-bonding to improve the speeds of the customers. We are covering all the segments of the market to have the best offering in broadband and combine with all the products as ClaroVideo, ClaroDrive security to bundle, the offering with more value-added than just broadband. So it is the push that we are doing in Mexico.
And the last thing in Mexico, I think, since October we have been making important changes in our commercial offer, increasing speeds and including unlimited voice...
In all the packages.
In all the packages. So I think that's more or less what we have been doing in terms of -- in the commercial side in Mexico. And the last one, you asked me about the -- which one?
PayTV. PayTV, Daniel, please.
I think IFETEL has not resolved yet our application to provide PayTV services in Mexico. The application was submitted back in October of 2018. All of the applicable requirements have been met. And IFETEL is conducting an internal review, we hope to receive clearance to compete in such a highly concentrated market soon. I think there is no competition in the market, in the TV market and as a result of that, prices have been consistently increasing in the PayTV market. So this is affecting all the Mexican consumers. So I hope they can give us the license soon. Telmex has only 39% of market share in the fixed-broadband and TV segment.
Revenues.
In terms of revenues, we only have 39% market share, Telmex in the market.
Your next question comes from Cesar Medina with Morgan Stanley.
Great quarter, guys. The question was regarding the functional separation. What is the stage of the process? And then the second question, we saw a significant improvement in margins in the U.S. Can you comment on what are the trends that you are seeing in this market as well?
Well, on the functional separation, the company is working diligently to assure compliance to ICC imposition as part of the functional separation. The due date for the separation is around March 2020. At this time, there is nothing specific to comment on this process. So there's nothing more to comment on that.
And on the U.S., well, I think and as I told in the first quarter, the TracFone is doing good. I think we are growing -- or the much of the gross adds of our subscribers has been improving. Revenues also has been improving and we are on track with our budget. So we can see 2019 for platform, my view is that we are going to have around the same EBITDA margins as last year and we are going to grow, taking out SafeLinks, around 300,000 subscribers, different than last year that we lost subscribers.
So all overall, TracFone is going to be much better in terms of net additions and we are going to have around the same EBITDA that we had last year. So that is more or less. If we are having one quarter, maybe we have a little bit more subsidies in one quarter than in the other one, but all overall, I think we are on track with our budget that we have on track.
Your next question comes from Carlos Legarreta with GBM.
So both in Mexico and Brazil, you saw an EBIDTA expansion of mid-single digits. I was wondering if you could give us sort of some color on how much of that comes from just increased usage or top line growth. How much of that comes from internal efficiency at the OpEx level?
Well, if you see the numbers in both countries are both, so we are increasing revenues and we are really cutting cost all around. So the efficiencies have been very good. We have a more -- good networks, more efficient networks, digitalizing a lot of our things. We have really a good strategy on trying to digitalize everything that we have, customer care, IT, billing, everything we have been trying to digitalize and it is giving us a lot of efficiencies. So I can tell you that Mexico, Brazil and in Colombia, that we have been having a very good quarter in Colombia, is because we are growing in the revenue side and we are cutting costs in the others.
And again, as we talked before, I say the revenues in Mexico are growing 8.3% on the mobile platform. And the fixed-line platform where they had been falling, they have reduced the decline and they were down only 1% in the quarter. If you look at mobile ARPUs, mobile ARPUs in Mexico were up 6.2%. So I think there's a lot to be said about top line growth supporting the growth of the EBITDA.
I understand. And if I may, a follow-up in the Mexican fixed-line market. Do you think that the deceleration of the decline in this market in terms of top line, is it explained mostly by the improvement in the corporate segment or you're also seeing an improvement on the mass-market side?
I think we're doing very good in the corporate segment. We are doing good. And we are going to improve more on the mass-market. So -- but the big investment and the substantial investments that we are doing in the fixed side are also in the mass-market.
Your next question comes from Juan Pablo Alba with Crédit Suisse.
My first question is just, I think, I know there's been a lot of questions now in terms of the fixed side in Mexico, but just one last thing. I just wanted to get a little bit more color, if you may, in terms of, if you're seeing any macro impact on the fixed side in Mexico regarding the mass-market? And also in terms of the cooperate, if you are seeing some government spending there or if it's only enterprise? That's my first question. And my second question is just around Colombia and mobile market, I would like to see some color there in terms of what's driving the good results, and that's it.
Well, let's start in Colombia. I think in Colombia, we have very good improvements in service revenue, 5.2% from 3.4% last quarter. So our increase in service revenue is very good. Postpaid is driving 6.1% of that growth, and also, the fixed revenues has been very good. Broadband is increasing around 11%.
So I think in Colombia, in the prepaid and postpaid, we have been increasing a lot our capacity, our coverage, ARPU is growing 6.9%. So we're selling a little bit more to our customers. Customers are using more our service, so it's increasing. And also it's one of the countries where PayTV services is growing very good. So in Colombia, I can see in the wireless and on the fixed both doing excellent. So still data usage is not so big. It is low and I think we have still a good opportunity to increase that, selling a little bit more to our customers. So I'm happy and our networks have been improving, giving more 4.5G and the increasing speeds. So all overall, Colombia is doing good.
And in Mexico, well, still we are not seeing -- as Carlos is staying, still we are not seeing any recession or any -- I'm sure that the government is spending less, but we are not seeing that in our business at that time.
[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Andre Baggio with JP Morgan.
I would like to know how is the outlook for América Móvil to get a PayTV license in Mexico. We had heard about this topic in last quarters, but we have not seen any action. So do you think that this could happen near the end of the year?
We don't know. As I just said, IFETEL has not resolved yet our application. So the application, we submitted in October of 2018 and we gave them all the requirements that they need. So we still don't know. We hope. And as I said, the only segment of the telecom market that is increasing prices is in the PayTV and I think for the Mexican people will be very good if they have more competition. So that is what I see. I hope we can have the license at the end of the year.
Perfect. And can you clarify a little bit more on this pension payments? We have seen this throughout the year substantial amount of payments to pensions in the American Movil Telmex. And can you give us some outlook that its -- you expect it in a recurring basis in next years?
I don't understand your question, but I don't think we have any change on the pension payments and pension fund on Telmex. We have been having that for time. There is nothing new, nothing changed and I don't have the specifics here, but there is nothing new on that pension fund.
Your next question comes from Carlos Sequeira with BTG Pactual.
I have just one follow-up question on Baggio's question on the PayTV license. And my question is how relevant would you think getting a PayTV license issued in Mexico? I mean given what has happened to the PayTV business in several different markets and you have other ways to provide PayTV services, is it really that important to have a license at this point in Mexico?
Well, what you are saying, it's right. I think the TV -- the PayTV is reducing in some markets. Still, as you see, Colombia is growing. But I think it's important and that all the players have convergence, that they can give convergence. They can do fixed, broadband and PayTV. So that's a triple-play.
I think in the house people is expecting to have the 3 services and that's really the reason why we are asking that. And on the other hand that's our -- that's why we want to do that. The penetration in the PayTV in Mexico is still low. I don't think the penetration -- it's average, but I think we can have a little bit penetration there, but the importance also is to have more competition. Prices -- it is the only place where prices has been increasing and we want to bundle our services with the PayTV. So that is the reason to have that.
There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call over to back over to Mr. Daniel Hajj.
No, I think...
No more questions and you did a very good job.
I want to thank everybody for being in the call. Thank you.
Thank you all.
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.