The company recorded an 8.2% fall in net profit during the final three months of 2012, with profits totalling 14.96 billion pesos compared to 16.31 billion pesos during the same period in 2011. Market watchers had predicted a figure above 24 billion pesos.
Valeria Romo, telecoms analyst at Mexican brokerage Grupo Financiero Monex, told the Financial Times that the figure was far below the firm’s expectations, describing it as “very weak”.
The disappointing figures were partly blamed on a weakening of the US dollar and of the Brazilian Real against the Mexican peso.
Brazil, where América Móvil ranks in the top three operators by market share for both mobile and fixed broadband, is estimated to account for 30% of the company’s revenue.
Elsewhere América Móvil’s net profits for the year were up 10.6% to 91.44 billion pesos and fourth quarter EBITDA were down 8% at 61.66 billion pesos compared to 67.01 billion pesos during the same period in 2011.
The company said it gained 5.6 million wireless customers in the fourth quarter, including 1.8 billion in Brazil, 1.2 billion in Mexico and 753,000 in the US. This brought its total subscriber growth for the year up 18.4% compared to 2011 at 19.8 million.
América Móvil finished the year with a total of 325.7 million customers across its mobile, fixed and pay TV base.
