América Móvil, which recently posted an increase in revenues and a drop in net income for its latest quarter, said it will invest up to $9 billion in its operations in 2012 as it looks to capture customers across Latin America and meet their demand for additional services and smartphones, as well as data services.
América Móvil said it expects to add between 14 million and 15 million mobile subscribers in 2012, having ended 2011 with about 242 million wireless customers across its operations.
The 2012 investments are expected to include improving its infrastructure. Previously, América Móvil has given a target of spending of $25 billion over the next three years.
During the final three months of last year, the company posted total revenues of $14.2 billion, which was a 12.3% increase compared with the final quarter of 2010. Wireless revenues, which increased 15.4% year-over-year, accounted for almost two-thirds of the company’s total revenues for the quarter. For the full year, América Móvil reported an 8.7% year-over-year increase in revenues to $52.02 billion.
While revenues were up, net income dropped both in the quarter and for the full year, 36.2% and 9.6%, respectively. The company blamed the shortfall on higher debt payments and a weaker currency offset. In its financial report, América Móvil noted that fourth-quarter net income “came down as the depreciation of the peso in the last quarter and the increase in net debt that took place throughout the year to fund the acquisition of stock of Telmex, Telmex Internacional, Net Serviços and StarOne as well as our own stock repurchases brought about an important increase in our comprehensive financing costs.”
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