América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:AMX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: And on Chile, well, I think Chile is a very important market for us. And we have a program — synergy program since we get together with Liberty. And we’re doing well. We’re advancing our synergies and our revenues and sales are going much better. So we think that we’re going to really focus on creating value on Chile. And that’s more or less, we still think that Liberty will be our partner in the future. We hope so. It’s a very good partner. And we’re focusing to really get everything, all the cost control, reducing expenses and moving in the market. We’re also putting more coverage, better quality and we’re really focusing in making Chile a much stronger company for the future. So that’s more or less what we’re doing there.

Marcelo Santos: So could we say that it’s on track? You think it’s on track or it’s above expectations versus what you hoped?

Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: No, I think we are on track. We don’t have a synergy program for six months. I think we have a synergy program for two years, very strong, very focused. And we are on track and we are doing very well. We are happy the way the company is evolving. We’re growing. We have been losing some customers in peaks in the last quarter, we’re growing customers. So we are improving and improving and improving every day.

Marcelo Santos: Great. Thank you very much.

Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from John Ho from Mizuho. John, please go ahead. Your line is open.

John Ho: Hey, good morning and thank you for taking my question. Just to get further clarification on the previous question regarding the joint venture in Chile. Have you — has America Movil contributed anymore capital during third quarter for the Chile operations? And then one thing to note, the joint venture partner Liberty did admit on its 2Q call that America Movil has been making most of the contributions to date. Are we to expect that going forward? And more from the perspective of America Movil’s plans. Right now the — I know you mentioned in the — that your previous statements are that you said the JV is 50-50 and you like Liberty, but considering America Movil has been making most of the contributions and what you’ve been doing, would you look to assume control in the future, would that be a possibility?

And lastly, would it be possible to get the Chilean JVs management maybe increase communication regarding what’s going on there because since for bondholders, since the JV has been closed last October, communication has been very low. So we’d like to see an increase if there is — if we can get it if possible. Thank you.

Carlos Garcia Moreno: Well, thank you. Let me begin with the last part of your comments or question. I think we’ve heard some of these comments to the effect that maybe the company should improve a little bit its visibility that it provides to the market. We are already talking to the partners so that together we can see to it that from here now on we can provide a bit more color than is strictly necessarily from the perspective of the guidelines of the bonds. But we can provide a bit more color on the operations themselves, okay. So I think we will be tending to your comments and those for the investors to make sure that you have a clearer view of the developments of the Chilean operation, okay, which I think —

John Ho: We would appreciate that. And I thank you for that.

Carlos Garcia Moreno: Yeah, yeah. So I would expect that probably before the end of this month, we can provide the financial statements for the — through September. And that in the context of this release, that we can provide also more color, more information on the actual operations. In terms of the — I think it’s very important what Daniel mentioned to the effect that this is a 50-50 joint venture and the partners needed to agree on a business plan, okay, which would be the beginning of the year. The business plan, as he mentioned, is not for a year. It’s a medium-term business plan. And we are focused on executing on it. I think the execution has been fine. As Daniel mentioned, on the operational side, it’s very clear. We are beginning to get some of the synergies that we expected first quarter or even first half of the year, there were some one-offs because of the — when you get these companies together, there’s always a one-off expenses, there’s people that leave the company, et cetera.

But we don’t have many — most of that — I mean most of that is really behind us. So I’d say that in agreeing business plan, we have also agreed on what it takes to execute this business plan, and that requires also some funding. So we have put in place the appropriate mechanism that should see to it that the company gets the funding that it needs in the time that is required. And that’s basically what we have, okay. At this time, it’s only mechanism that provide for this — for financing throughout the period. At some point — we at some point — at this point have not envisioned any change in stakeholdings. And there has not been any change as of today on any of the stakeholdings. So that’s all what we can say on this result.

Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: And one more thing on Chile, I think we have — I haven’t mentioned that, but we are already put — we are very happy in America Movil with the management that we have there. As Carlos said, we have to structure and to take out some people and put other ones. But right now, we feel that the management that we have there is in place working and focusing on executing that. So that’s also something that we are happy on that.

John Ho: Has there been any other further capital in the 3Q results for America Movil to VTR, I mean to the joint venture?

Carlos Garcia Moreno: There hasn’t been probably any capital waste at the level of VTR. So there hasn’t been any equity provided. And as I said and I don’t think we can go beyond that, I think there’s been financing mechanisms that have been put in place to ensure that the company gets the funding that’s required to execute its business plan. That’s it. At this point, we are not envisioning any capital contributions as such.

John Ho: Okay, thank you.

Daniel Hajj Aboumrad: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Soomit Datta from New Street Research. Soomit, please go ahead. Your line is open.