América Móvil - Q3 2024
October 16, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Now I will turn the call over to Ms. Daniela Lecuona, Head of Investor Relations, to begin.
Daniela Lecuona (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our Third Quarter Financial and Operating Report,. We have on the line Mr. Daniel Hajj, CEO, Mr. Carlos García Moreno, CFO, and Mr. Oscar von Hauske, COO.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Hi, good morning. Welcome to América Móvil Third Quarter Financial and Operating Report, and Carlos is gonna make a summary of the results.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Interest rates in the U.S. and several other countries continued their downward trend in the third quarter, with ten-year U.S. Treasury yields falling 85 basis points from the beginning of the quarter through mid-September to a low of 3.6. The decline was driven by concern about the cooling U.S. economy and its corresponding impact on the labor market. It prompted the Fed to finally declare its first discount rate reduction in two and a half years, a period in which it brought about a 5 percentage point increase in such rate. Shortly after the end of the third quarter, ten-year yields had bounced back to more than 4% on the back of an unexpectedly strong non-farm payrolls numbers for September, wiping out half of the reductions that had taken place through mid-September.
Throughout the quarter, central bank discount rates fell by 50 basis points in Mexico and Peru, 1 percentage point in Colombia, and 25 basis points in Chile, but were going up once again in Brazil by 35 basis points. In the third quarter, we added 1.8 million subscribers, of which 1.4 million were postpaid. These include regular subscribers as well as M2M accesses, dongles, and fixed mobile devices. Oscar contributed 430,000 of them. Brazil contributed 291,000, Colombia 159,000, and Mexico 108,000 postpaid subscribers.
Our prepaid segment obtained four hundred and sixty-eight thousand net additions, led by Colombia with two hundred and fifty-one thousand, Eastern Europe with two hundred and thirteen thousand, and Argentina with two hundred thousand, but registered three hundred and forty-three thousand disconnections in Brazil and a hundred and thirty-six thousand in Mexico. In the fixed line segment, we connected three hundred and thirty-seven thousand broadband accesses, a hundred and sixteen thousand in Mexico, fifty-nine thousand in Brazil, and approximately forty-three thousand in Argentina and Central America. We disconnected eighty-three thousand landlines and thirty thousand pay TV units in the quarter. Mobile postpaid and fixed broadband continued to be the main drivers of access growth, with 5.9% and 5.2% respectively year on year.
Third quarter revenue totaled MXN 223 billion, with service revenue expanding 11.3% in Mexican peso terms and EBITDA 11.9%, partly reflecting the depreciation of the Mexican peso versus most of the currencies in our region of operations, with the notable exception of the Brazilian real. Approximately 10% depreciation versus both the dollar and the euro, 8% versus the Colombian peso, and 12% versus the Peruvian sol. At constant exchange rates, service revenue was up 5.5% year on year, an improvement on the 4.7% rate observed the prior quarter, while adjusted EBITDA increased 7.3%. Mobile service revenue growth accelerated somewhat from the prior quarter to 5.2%, posting its best performance in over a year on the back of postpaid revenue growth.
On the fixed line space, service revenue rose 5.9%. Broadband revenue decelerated slightly from the prior quarter to 7.4%, whereas corporate networks revenue expanded 10.1% faster than the same quarter. The decline in pay TV revenue continues but has become less and less significant. Brazil and Colombia continued their trend over the last year of posting improved service revenue growth every quarter, while Central America presented a better growth rate than the preceding two quarters. Mexico and Peru maintained their pace from prior quarters. Our operating profit reached MXN 47.4 billion. It was up 14.2% in Mexican peso terms and 10% at constant exchange rate. Adjusted for one-offs I mentioned above, our operating profit increased 12% at constant exchange rate.
We posted a net profit of MXN 6.4 billion in the quarter, nearly trebling the one obtained a year before. It was equivalent to MXN 0.10 per share or $0.11 per ADR, and came about on the back of higher operating profit, as mentioned before, but also as comprehensive financing costs came down 4.8% relative to the same period of 2023 to MXN 28 billion. Our net debt ended September at MXN 443 billion, having increased by MXN 47.3 billion relative to December 2023, partly reflecting the impact of the depreciation of the Mexican peso on our non-peso financial obligations. In cash flow terms, our net debt increased by MXN 19.7 billion. In the nine months to September, our capital expenditures totaled MXN 86.7 billion.
Shareholder distributions, 2.9, split evenly, almost evenly between share buybacks and dividend payments. We reduced our labor obligations in the amount of MXN 23.7 billion pesos, partly all of this at terms. Our net debt excluding leases to EBITDA after this ratio ended September at 1.34 times last twelve months EBITDA, practically at the lower leverage limit that we committed to maintain in our investor base. Finally, I'd just like to highlight that we received our third ESG rating upgrade by MSCI in as many years, reflecting improvements on corporate governance, security, and data progress. With that, I would like to pass it back, go back to Daniel Hajj. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you, Carlos, and we can start with the Q&A.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question goes to Milenna Okamura of Goldman Sachs. Milena, please go ahead.
Milenna Okamura (Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, thank you for taking my question. The first one is if you have any updated views on the competitive dynamics of the fixed broadband market in Mexico? And my second question would be on your CapEx guidance. Is your target for the year still at about $7.1 million? Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
The second question, can you repeat the second question? We don't hear you.
Milenna Okamura (Equity Research Analyst)
I'm sorry. On the CapEx guidance for 2024.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
CapEx.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Hmm.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
On the CapEx, I think we are on target. For this year, we said that, we're gonna do around $7.2 billion, and that's our target, and we are more or less on that range, so no big difference on that. On the dynamics on the fixed broadband in Mexico, Oscar can talk a little bit about that.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
The dynamics as you've been seeing through the years, the competition has been increasingly very hard in Mexico. Telmex has been reacted with investments on upgrading the network, and now 83.7% of the fixed broadband are already connected to fiber. And not only that, has been working to bundle different streaming video in order to do packages that are really well accepted in the market. Even last week, we launched a new package that we increased the speeds, the entry-level speeds from 60 to 80 with the same tariff, and we include Netflix six months free. We include Claro Video and Claro Drive bundled in the package.
So we believe that it, I mean, we have one week of this product and the reception we see that is very good in the market. So the competition is still, but I think we already upgraded the network in a good level to be really competitive in the market. Another segment that is working pretty nice in Mexico is the B2B market. On the B2B market, all related to cloud computing, cybersecurity, horizontal solution has been received very well in the market as well. So that leverage us to improve revenues in challenge.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Right. Only to add something that Oscar is saying, just to be clear, I think we have been putting a lot of fiber the last years, but not only putting fiber, we have been upgrading our customers to fiber. And as Oscar is saying, maybe 85%-
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
8.84%.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
84% of our customers are with fiber, good speeds, good quality. IT has been improving a lot in Mexico. It's one of the things that we have been doing, improving IT, so we can give better customer service, install faster-
Milenna Okamura (Equity Research Analyst)
Time to repair.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Time to repair, also faster. So we have been improving also on the quality of service. So Mexico, in fixed and in mobile, is being very competitive. We haven't increased any price for a long time. We have been giving more for that, and but we feel that we have right now a very good advantage on the quality, capacity-
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Yeah
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
... on the networks, in the mobile, on the coverage, on the quality, and the centers, customer care centers. So all overall, we think we're doing good in Mexico.
Milenna Okamura (Equity Research Analyst)
Super clear. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thanks. The next question goes to Walter Piecyk of Lightshed Partners. Walter, please go ahead.
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Thanks. I think just first, if I can start with a macro question. Obviously, you know, there's some questions, kind of what's gonna happen going forward and into 2025. You have many data points in terms of what you're seeing with your customers, forget about Europe, just throughout Latin America, in terms of recharges and subscriber activity and upgrades of phones. Can you just give us a general sense of kind of your kind of what you've seen most recently and what you think or what your outlook is for the coming quarter in 2025?
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
It's a very interesting question. I think I can divide into prepaid is very different than postpaid. I think prepaid depends a lot-
... on how the economies are doing in Latin America. People once recharge, depending on the money that they have, the purchasing power that they have. That's one thing they need. There's a lot of prepaid that are moving to 5G in Mexico, in Latin America, so we have been putting 5G overall, but depending a lot on the economy and the way the economy in each country is doing. On postpaid, I think we have been doing very good. We have been upgrading our customers, giving them better handsets, more data, and they are paying more. That's the trend that we have been doing for the last two years since we have been putting 5G.
I hope that this trend will continue the same way for 2025.
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
I think in the first part of your question, Daniel, you were saying that it does depend on the economy. So from what you've seen, what you're seeing currently, the economy is still instigating, you know, very good recharge rates on the prepaid side? That has not, you know, started to cool at all.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Yeah, you know, if you look at the rates of growth of our prepaid revenues in Mexico, they were 4.1% in the quarter. Last quarter, they were 4.3%, identical. A year ago, they were at 4.1%. So we haven't really seen as much as a slowdown as some people had expected to see it on account of slowing down of the economy. And as Daniel said, I think you know, postpaid revenues are also holding up. So I think that-
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Yeah
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
... generally, you know, we have seen more sensitivity, I think, probably in Brazil, because, as you know, Brazil's economy has been accelerating sharply, of late.
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Mm-hmm.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
And that has had an impact in the sector, definitely, you know. But for the most part, I think we're not seeing very very major changes. This is a very defensive industry, as you know, and revenues tend to follow pretty good in all GDP scenarios.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Yeah, and a lot of things that you do. I think people needs to use more the phone, and they are gonna use more and more the phone. So, if they can have a better phone, they can have 5G, faster networks, more data. That's what you are gonna see in the next years, not only next year. So in the next years, everything is gonna go through the phone.
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Thanks. And then just one quick technology question follow-up, I guess. Who can you just refresh us on who you expect to be your partners in terms of connecting your customers' phones to satellite constellations? I think you might have had... Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought you had an agreement with AST at one point. I'm just curious kind of how you see your market partnership there in terms of satellite direct connectivity to, to the phones of your customers throughout Latin America.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
I think there's two partners. So, what we're using right now, some partners, not only one. I think we have two or three partners, but the things we are always reviewing which partner is giving us the best services to connect in some rural areas, the cell sites. So
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Mobile.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
So for the mobile backhaul, we use satellite. And then there's the other part that is when we don't have any coverage there, that the phone will connect there, and that, that's. So these two different services, we are reviewing right now. We already having the first one connecting the cell sites, two or three different vendors. And but, there's always. We're always looking to have better quality and reduce costs. So that's moving every day. So I don't know exactly, but we have which ones we have offered right now?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We have Star One.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Star One.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We have Starlink, we have SpaceX.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Exactly. Uh.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We have AST.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
AST, yes.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We are testing, doing AST as well.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
So we're using-
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
For SpaceX, you have an agreement or you're exploring a possible agreement with Starlink?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We already have an agreement for resale.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Their service-
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Got it.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We are exploring an agreement so they can connect the backhaul.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We already use in Chile for mobile backhaul.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Backhaul. Okay. Yes.
Walter Piecyk (General Partner)
Great. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Marcelo Santos of J.P. Morgan. Marcelo, please go ahead.
Marcelo Santos (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to double-click a bit on broadband dynamics. The first question would be in Mexico. You had good net adds, but it was a bit less than in the second quarter. Is this because you had lower gross adds, or because there was a bit of higher churn in the market? Just wanted to understand if the market is getting more competitive. And the second question is if you could comment on the competitive dynamics of Brazilian broadband. It's a more general question.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Sorry, the second one?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
In Brazilian broadband.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Yeah. We experienced on the second and third quarter a little bit more churn.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
... Mexico.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
In Mexico, we attribute due to the economics. So yes, we in both will see this fourth quarter, you know, in the same path that we had the last two quarters. And in Brazil, in broadband, we are the leaders in high speed internet in broadband. Even, we were awarded the best Wi-Fi in Latin America, in Brazil, delivering our services. So, we are the leaders of market share as well in Brazil. And as you know, there is a lot of competition from the ISPs, but we keep growing, you know, the base.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We already upgrade all the data, all the network to deliver one gigabit speed to DOCSIS through DOCSIS 3.1, and we have almost 11 million home passes with fiber to the home. So I think we are in a very well position. And another thing in Brazil is that we've been working in convergence, that has been working pretty nice, adding some mobile and pay TV. We recently launched a new way to pay TV, and it's combined with broadband. It's a new package. I won't call it pay TV. I think it's a different product. It's like a more entertainment hub.
What we did is to really include the channels that have more audience, plus Netflix with advertising, plus Globoplay, plus Apple +, with very good conditions to the market. We believe that it will tie the broadband, and we will keep going, growing in broadband.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Just to give you like a sense in Mexico, third quarter of 2023, we do 20,000 net adds in broadband. Fourth quarter of 2023, 165,000. First quarter of 2024, this year, 325,000. Then second quarter this year, 148,000, and third quarter, 116,000. So we hope we can maintain these hundreds, a hundred and-
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
120.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Twenty or a hundred and fifty or a hundred for the next quarter. So I think we're prepared, as we said, and it's a very competitive market. That's why we have also some churn, because it's a very competitive market. But I think we're prepared to try to recuperate a little bit of the market share that we lose.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
We already did.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Last year. Last years.
Marcelo Santos (VP and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, very clear. Thank you very much for the answers.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Gustavo Farias of UBS. Gustavo, please go ahead.
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question, two from my end. First one, we've seen some negative net adds in mobile, in Brazil, of course, driven by prepaid. Just wanna check what you guys expect in terms of trends going forward? And of course, in terms of competition in the region as well, in mobile specifically. My second one is regarding, we've seen some increase in the net debt this quarter, and if you could share some color on your debt strategy and how you're looking at FX impacts going forward as well. Thank you, guys.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Let's start with Brazil. I think in Brazil, we're doing very good. We are moving a lot of prepaid subscribers to postpaid subscribers, and that's the reason why we have a negative, as you said, but we have a very good, very positive trend in postpaid. Other thing is that we're trying to have our prepaid base very clean, so we want to have that. So we have been very aggressive if a customer is not consuming, not to count as a customer. So that's what we are doing, and there's a rule, but we have been very strict on that. Moving a lot of these prepaid to postpaid subscribers has been very successful. The second question, what, which one is it?
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Uh-
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Sorry.
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Regarding how you see the debt strategy, and FX impacts going forward?
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Right. Regarding what?
Daniela Lecuona (Head of Investor Relations)
You have a bad connection, Marcelo. Can you please repeat the question or send it by chat or email to me?
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Yeah, yeah, of course. I can repeat the question. I'm just wondering what you guys, how you guys see your debt strategy regarding FX impacts?
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
FX.
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Going forward.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
See, well, hi, Marcelo. I think, you know, we are not really looking at taking on additional debt. As you can see, we have reduced our leverage. We have very limited refinancings to do next year. It's probably the year with the least amount of maturity that we have. It's probably less than $1 billion.
…I think that we have been doing, you know, very successful at trying to drive the growth of our Mexican global peso bonds. And we've already issued in a bit more than a year, MXN 55 billion, which, well, for the time, close to $3 billion. And we expect that we can continue to consolidate this program. And we will also be looking at raising a bit more financing in some of our local markets. In fact, we've been doing a little bit of this in Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. So I think that's going to be more the strategy, to focus a bit more on local currency generally.
But, again, it's basically in the context of refinancing existing debt, which we expect to hopefully maintain same levels. We do have,
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
All right, thank you.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Some short-term debt, and I think that's a variable that we can play with. We will be adjusting downwards, very likely in the next few months. Thank you.
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Thank you, Carlos.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Ernesto González of Morgan Stanley. Ernesto, please go ahead.
Ernesto González (Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, thank you for taking our question. It's just one. Can you please provide any color on your CapEx plans for Chile? Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
It's too early to see. As we said in our results, we're gonna start to consolidate Chile first of November. We're gonna have ninety-two, so we're gonna consolidate also the CapEx. We still haven't finished the CapEx for next year, so we don't know. But it's not gonna be a big difference on what we have. So we consolidate the revenues, we're gonna consolidate the CapEx, but it's not gonna change too much the idea that we have, you know. So I don't have the final number, but it's not gonna change significantly the CapEx that we have budget for next year.
Ernesto González (Equity Research Analyst)
Crystal clear. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Yeah.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Phani Kanumuri of HSBC. Phani, please go ahead.
Phani Kanumuri (Analyst)
Thanks for taking my question. So the first one is that LatAm currencies have depreciated significantly in the last six months. So do you see any change in your shareholders remuneration or CapEx direction than what you did in your anniversary in May? The second question is largely on the constant currency growth rate for the fixed broadband. You had given a number of 5.9%. Wanted to check which countries have registered a better than average growth rate, among your major countries. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We don't understand very good your question, but the second one, when you said the average growth on broadband, I think the average growth, the growth on broadband has been better every quarter. I think it's doing good. In each country, we have been doing good. I see... I think all overall, we're seeing a little bit less competition on these private companies, that they-
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Wholesale.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Wholesale networks that they do all around Latin America, and that help us to be more aggressive and to increase our sales. So on broadband, I think it's still low penetration in broadband in Latin America, and we're gonna see good growth the next years, okay, in broadband. The first one, we don't understand. What was your question?
Phani Kanumuri (Analyst)
So I think the second question, like, so you had a 5.9% fixed service revenue growth, but all the major markets that you had, including Mexico, Colombia, you know, Brazil, all have registered revenue growth that is lower than 5.9%. So I was just trying to understand which geographies have grown above the 5.9% fixed service revenue growth.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Uh.
Phani Kanumuri (Analyst)
That's the first question.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We don't have it here, but you can discuss with Daniela, and she can give you exactly where we are higher than 5.9 and where we're a little bit lower. I think Brazil, I don't know how... What's the growth in Brazil?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
performance on it. It's Brazil, 8.8, Colombia, 7.2.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Remember that broadband also includes the corporate segment there. So but you can talk to Daniela and disclose that.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Very quickly, you know, it's 8.8% for Brazil, 7.2% for Colombia, 15.7% in Eastern Europe, 8.6% Central America. 8.6% Central America, yes. And 10.9% in Dominican. So that's fixed overall growth of 7.4% for América Móvil. On the corporate networks side, we have 10% for América Móvil, including 12.8% in Mexico.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
... 7.9% in Brazil, 14.1% in Colombia, and 7.5% in Central America.
Gustavo Farias (Associate Director)
Okay.
Phani Kanumuri (Analyst)
Yeah, I'll connect with Daniel on this. So the first question was that, because you have seen depreciation of currencies across LatAm in the last six months, is there any change in the view of shareholder remuneration or CapEx that you guys had during your annual strategy in May?
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
No, we don't have any change on CapEx. We've finished this year, so the CapEx for this year is done, and we're reviewing the CapEx of next year, but we don't see any change on that. And also on the shareholder remuneration, we haven't had any difference also. So we're in the target that we have now. What was the buyback that we have for all this year, Carlos?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
No, from January to today, so third quarter, how many we have?
About fourteen billion.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
MXN 14 billion. Okay.
Phani Kanumuri (Analyst)
Okay. Yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Alejandro Lavín of Santander. Alejandro, please go ahead.
Alejandro Lavín (Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning, everyone. Can you hear me? Okay, thank you for taking my question. So first of all, congrats on the results. I mean, you're seeing solid top line results. I mean, now the currency, one headwind, now it's a tailwind. You're seeing rising profitability, stable CapEx, low leverage. So it sounds like the stars are sort of aiming for a very positive outlook for the end of next year and especially all of next, right? So congrats on that. Second, well, it seems that you have a very comfortable position in terms of competition in the LatAm region and maybe in other markets. So my question is regarding M&A possibilities, right?
I mean, there are some opportunities in the very near term in LatAm, but in general, like statistically, what kind of assets or regions would you be looking at? Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
I think on M&A, we're not seeing anything as we don't think we have any opportunities in Latin America, in M&A, it's very difficult. We are over there. So in Latin America, we want to grow and put our CapEx and penetrate more and have the best technology. And that's what we have been doing for the last three or four years. So what we have been seeing today is everything that we do the last years. We have been digitalizing more the company. We have been taking care of our customer care. We have been very careful on cost and expenses. We have been upgrading all our platforms. We have the biggest 5G network in Latin America is América Móvil 5G network.
So, all overall, we have the latest technology, and that give us better quality, more speed, and better costs than our competitors. So that's more or less where we are focusing, and that's what we are gonna do for next year. So that's what we have been saying all the last years. But no, no-
Alejandro Lavín (Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
No M&A planning, no M&A planning as right now.
Alejandro Lavín (Research Analyst)
Okay.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We're open to opportunities, but we don't have anything right now. The only thing is consolidate Chile, that we're gonna consolidate Chile, and we have to work a lot there. There's a very, very competitive market there. So as we said, we have been upgrading all our mobile network. We have been making an agreement with the
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
OnNet.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
OnNet, the wholesale company. We also have fiber there, so we are finalizing all the mergers that we have with the Liberty and get all the synergies that we have there, so we are in a big process in Chile that we have for the next year.
Alejandro Lavín (Research Analyst)
Okay. Thank you. Understood. Congrats on the results.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Lucca Brendim of Bank of America. Lucca, please go ahead.
Lucca Brendim (Equity Research Associate)
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two here. The first one on Colombia. Results accelerated this quarter, reached the three-year high in terms of service revenue growth. Is this already reflecting somewhat a more rational market after the recent changes we saw in this region? And then the second one for Brazil. How are you seeing pricing dynamics in mobile going forward? Is there still potential for further price hikes? And when we're thinking about ARPU expansion for next year, should you be focusing more on the upselling or in direct price hikes? Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We're always focusing more on upselling our customers, because if you upsell your customer, you give more to your customer, and they pay you more. So I think it's much better upsell your customer than increase price, okay? I don't know what we're gonna do in Brazil right now, but I think we are focusing more on upsell and giving more data to all our customers, moving prepaid to postpaid, and that's, I think, the trend in Brazil.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
No, and in Colombia, just on the service revenue growth, I think it's important to highlight how it's improved. But it's not only mobile, it's been mobile and fixed. So just to give you an idea, first quarter this year, we were growing 0.4% in mobile, and now we're growing at 4.0%. In fixed line, we were growing at 2% in service revenue, today we're growing at 5.2%. So I think it's, you know, it's important to see that this recovery is taking place all throughout the country. It's not only mobile, but it's been very meaningful.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Only to add to something that Carlos said on Colombia, we are the biggest 5G network in Colombia. We take advantage of the frequencies, the auction, and we have been putting that for maybe eight months before the auction. And it's been very. We have maybe 20% of our traffic right now in 5G in Colombia, so that gives a very good quality and very good service to our customers. And they spend more because they use more data.
Lucca Brendim (Equity Research Associate)
Oh, very clear. Thank you for the answers.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Carlos Siqueira of BTG Pactual. Carlos, please go ahead.
Carlos Sequeira (Head of Research)
Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Today, it's a quick one. We model for AMX to generate a little more than $5 billion in free cash flow next year. I was wondering, with leverage close to the bottom of the range, is there any reason why you wouldn't return, you know, this free cash flow to investors in twenty twenty-five? All of it or a good part of it, at least. Thank you.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Hey, Carlos, well, as you recall, we met you guys at the Investor Day in May, and we established a band for our leverage ratio. And we said the band was going to be 1.35-1.5, and we are exactly at the lower end of the band. So I think that, you know, as I had mentioned before, we don't really have any notion of continuing to reduce leverage much further from where we are. Maybe a little bit on the short-term debt.
Carlos Sequeira (Head of Research)
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
You're welcome.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question goes to Carlos de Legarreta of Itaú. Carlos, please go ahead.
Carlos Legarreta (VP Equity Research)
Hi, thank you. Good morning. I think my question in this case will be for Argentina, please. I would like to be reminded of what are your plans are in fixed revenue? Obviously, that's growing very nicely because I know the footprint is growing. And I know you're doing mostly fiber. So if you can talk a little bit about that and also how is the wireless business evolving? Obviously, it was very positive this quarter, but you know, some color on the market trends would be helpful. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
But very, very good that you talk a little bit, you ask a question on Argentina. I think Argentina is doing okay. We have been still investing. We don't stop anything the last years on Argentina, so we put fiber when things don't look so, so good, and we're growing. How many customers on fiber, on broadband we have right now is?
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
Four thousand this quarter.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
No.
Carlos García Moreno (CFO)
One million.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
No, more than a million, no? And we have been growing and having 1.4 million subscribers on broadband we have in Argentina. No, September 2023, September 2024. No, 1.6, 1.6 we have in Argentina. So we have been growing, still growing very good, and we are upgrading our network, mobile network. And I hope Argentina will reduce more the inflation and do better on the economic, then we're gonna have a very good company there.
Carlos Legarreta (VP Equity Research)
Thank you. And yet, maybe-
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
We have been growing from being the third one. What? Sorry, we have been growing from being the third one in mobile. In customers, I think we are the first one right now. So I'm not so sure, but in customers, we are the first one, almost the first one in mobile right now, and growing in the fixed line.
Carlos Legarreta (VP Equity Research)
Okay, thank you. And how are your 5G plans? Do you have the necessary spectrum, or are you still waiting for an auction to happen?
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Yes, yeah, we're putting 5G and more cell sites in 5G, and that's the way we're gonna grow there. So we're investing. We have a CapEx that's focused on and assigned to Argentina, and we're doing all the things with the CapEx that we have there, so.
Carlos Legarreta (VP Equity Research)
Okay. Thank you for the update.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Thank you. Bye.
Operator (participant)
... Thank you, and as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press Star followed by one on your telephone keypad. And the next question goes to Camila Koga of BBI. Camila, please go ahead.
Camila Koga (Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. My connection is not good, so I apologize if you have already answered this. I have a quick one on the Nubank. If you could give us more details about it. I wanna know, I wanna have an idea of how aggressive Nubank can be, if the agreement of Nubank shorter prices lower than current prices. Thank you.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Look, we don't hear you very well, but let me. I'm gonna add a little bit on the other question. The last question that they asked me is talking about Argentina, because we always talk a lot on Mexico, on Brazil, on Colombia. But I think all around América Móvil, we have been doing very good. If we talk about Peru, in Peru, we have been growing EBITDA, growing with the fiber, upgrading our networks, giving more plans and all of that. Then if we go to Central America, Central America has been having a-
Camila Koga (Equity Research Analyst)
Sorry.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Very good. Sorry? No,
Camila Koga (Equity Research Analyst)
Sorry, my question is on the... sorry.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Sorry. And so on Central America, we have been also doing very good, excellent, gaining share, putting fiber, putting more coverage, and the growth has been very good. The growth on mobile and the growth on fixed. Then if we go to Dominican Republic, also, América Móvil has been exceptional in Dominican Republic. Then we go to Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe has been with a very good growth, expanding. We used to have only mobile. We have fixed all around with broadband. So in all the different countries, we have been doing very good and gaining market share. So just when they talk about Argentina, it's not only Argentina, I think all the other countries has been having an exceptional development for the last year.
So, sorry to not answer your question, but I want to give these comments because we focus in two or three countries, very important countries, but all the other ones are also important and doing very, very good also. Sorry, your question again?
Camila Koga (Equity Research Analyst)
My question was on the Nubank. If you could give us more details about it. I wanna have idea of how aggressive the bank could be, and if maybe the other one are-
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
The bank?
Daniela Lecuona (Head of Investor Relations)
The bank. No, Camila, we cannot really understand anything that you're saying. Do you wanna email me your question? Okay. So can we talk later.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
Okay. Thank you.
Camila Koga (Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. That's all the questions that we have time for today. I will now turn the call back over to Daniel Hajj for any final remarks.
Daniel Hajj (CEO)
No. So give thanks to everyone for the call, and, see you next quarter. Bye-bye.
Daniela Lecuona (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you all.