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BCN-01
MEXICO-TELECOM-EARNINGS-AMERICAMOVIL
America Movil profit plunges in Q2
MEXICO CITY, July 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Telecommunications giant America
Movil, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s flagship company, said Tuesday its
profit fell sharply in the second quarter as the peso was pummeled by
uncertainty.
The firm reported a net profit of 818 million pesos ($43 million) from
April to June, down 94.3 percent from the same period last year.
The firm said it faced hefty financing costs of 32.2 billion pesos, “mostly
derived from foreign exchange losses arising mostly from the depreciation of
the Mexican peso versus the dollar.”
The peso lost nine percent against the dollar during the quarter, weighed
down by uncertainty over the future of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada and the outcome of
Mexico’s July 1 elections, which ended in a landslide victory for leftist
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
America Movil’s revenue for the period nevertheless increased 3.2 percent
year-on-year, to 257.3 billion pesos, it said.
The company operates across much of Latin America, in the United States and
in central and eastern Europe.
It has helped make Slim the world’s seventh-richest man, according to
Forbes magazine, which estimates his family fortune at $67.1 billion.
BSS/AFP/HR/0930