MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil reported on Tuesday that its second quarter net profit plunged 68% to 13.683 billion pesos ($679 million) as net interest expenses more than quadrupled from the year-ago period.
The company, which is controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said revenues rose 3.3% to 217.391 billion pesos from the year-earlier period.
America Movil said “concerns associated with high inflation dominated market sentiment”, adding that the U.S. dollar had appreciated against all major currencies in the region of the company’s operations.
The telecom’s net interest expense rose to 18.1 billion pesos compared with 4.4 billion pesos in the year-ago period.
America Movil said it added 1.8 million postpaid customers, and 1.3 million new subscribers in the prepaid customer segment.
The company has pledged an $1.8 billion investment in the rollout of its 5G network in Mexico with the goal of covering 100 cities by the end of the year.
($1 = 20.1335 Mexican pesos at end-June)
(Reporting by Carolina Pulice; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Christian Plumb)
