Mexico's America Movil Q4 net profit tumbles, hit by Chile unit deconsolidation

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican telecommunications giant America Movil reported on Tuesday a 90% drop in its fourth-quarter net profit from the same period a year earlier, mainly due to the deconsolidation of Claro Chile and currency headwinds. Net profit stood at $703 million (13.71 billion pesos), down from $6.8 billion (132 billion pesos). The company, which is controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, in October received regulatory approval to launch a joint venture in Chile with VTR. The firm's subsidiary, Claro Chile, in order to comply with antitrust concerns, will transfer its satellite television service to a trustee who will divest the service to a third party.

America Movil, in a statement to Mexico's main stock exchange, said net profit also took a hit "due to the depreciation of the Chilean currency against the Mexican peso in recent years."

The firm posted a 2.4% decrease in revenues, again partly driven by the appreciation of the Mexican peso versus other Latin American currencies.

Revenues reached 215.962 billion pesos.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), or core earnings, was 84.8 billion pesos, a decrease of about 4.4% in nominal terms from a year ago.

America Movil said it added 1.5 million postpaid customers in the quarter, driven by Brazil, Austria and Colombia. It also added 1.8 million prepaid customers, with the majority in Mexico.

There were 110,000 new broadband accesses and 97,000 new Pay TV customers, while the company lost 234,000 voice access lines.

($1= 19.5089 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison, Valentine Hilaire and Noe Torres; Editing by Chris Reese)