10/20/2021

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Good morning. My name is Lauren and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the America Mobile third quarter 2021 conference call and webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star followed by two. Thank you. Now I'll turn the call over to Ms. Daniela Luck-Warner, Head of Investor Relations.

speaker
Daniela Luck-Warner
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We're very pleased to join you this morning to discuss our third quarter results. We have on the line Mr. Daniel Hash, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Carlos García Moreno, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Oscar Monjausque, Chief Operating Officer.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Daniela. Thank you, everyone, for being in the call. Carlos is going to make a summary of the third quarter results.

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. During the third quarter, supply shortages were prevalent in several industries at a global level, helping inflation data continue to surpass estimates in the U.S. and other countries. The market consensus appeared to shift in favor of the Fed and other monetary authorities, moving more rapidly than anticipated to ease the expansion of the monetary base and set the base for interest rates to begin to rise. In this context, 10-year interest yields from U.S. government notes experienced a marked correction just prior to the end of the quarter, helping strengthen the dollar versus most currencies, including the U.S. and several Latin American ones, closing the quarter high vis-a-vis all of them. As regards the operations in the third quarter, we added 4.2 million wireless subscribers, of which 2.2 million were post-pick clients, ending September with 302 million subscribers, 7% more than a year before. Roughly half the new post-pick clients came from Brazil, with Colombia contributing 313,000 subs and Peru 262,000. Chile and Austria, which contributed 140,000 posted subscribers. Mexico led the way in prepaid with 577,000 NetApps, followed by Brazil with 307,000 and Argentina, 270,000. Colombia, Ecuador, the Central American bloc, and our European operations, each obtained around 200,000 new prepaid clients. On the six-line platform, we had pay-to-be net disconnections in Brazil that more than upset the net gains we had in the other countries. At the end of the quarter, Brazil's pay-to-be accesses were down 5% from a year before, whereas Colombia's were up 6%, and in the rest of our subsidiaries, they were up 3%. For American Mobile, there was a 2% reduction overall, as in the chart. As for broadband accesses, Argentina is up almost 50% year-on-year, followed by Peru and Colombia with approximately 10%. In the aggregate, American Mobile's broadband accesses increased 3% over a year ago. Our revenue totaled $253 billion in the quarter. That's 2.6% decline in nominal peso terms on account of the appreciation of the Mexican peso versus other currencies in our region relative to the yearly volume. At constant exchange rates, service revenue increased 4.5% year-on-year, twice as fast as our cost and expenses, leading to a 7.5% increase in EBITDA that totaled 87 billion pesos. Peru, Eastern Europe, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico were the countries whose service revenue growth was fastest, from 16.6% in Peru to 6.4% in Mexico. Central America, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Austria all delivered growth in the 4% to 5% range. Mobile service revenue expanded 5.9%, with fixed mobile devices and 5G services playing an increasingly important role in some countries, while fixed line service revenues increased 1.6 percent. In both cases, the mobile and the fixed, it was their best showing in several quarters, if we correct for the low second quarter spending base that affected the yearly compliance on the mobile. In the third quarter, both prepaid and postpaid mobile revenue increased around 6 percent. The comp that you see in the chart has to do with the distortion in the annual comparison mentioned before, as prepaid hit its lowest point in the second quarter of 2020. Mexico and Brazil both increased their mobile service revenue 9%, with Peru boasting 15.8%. In the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and Dominicana saw revenue increases of 14.5% and 7.7% respectively. Our European operations, for their part, recorded nearly 11% growth, with Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia all registering better than 10% revenue increases. At nearly 7%, Austria's revenue growth was void by 5G services and fixed mobile devices. On the Fisland platform, broadband and corporate network revenue expanded 5.6 and 4.6% respectively, and pay-to-view revenue fell 5.2%. With clients in Brazil continuing to revise on the cost of their pay-to-view plans, reflecting a greater share of content coming from streaming services as opposed to the traditional multi-channel offering. On the Fixlan platform, revenue growth was not worthy in Peru at close to 20%. Colombia, 9.8%, and Eastern Europe, 9.2%. Bulgaria posted 15% growth, and Belarus and Serbia expanded revenue more than 20%. Not including the chart is Argentina, given its high inflation, but its fixed service revenue has risen almost 9% in real terms after inflation. Our EBITDA margin jumped to 34.6% from 33.2% the prior year, and this was our highest EBITDA margin in nine years. Mexico, Central America, Dominican Republic, Peru, they were all behind this margin expansion, having the first three of them registered three percentage point improvements, beginning with Mexico, and Peru's two and a half. We obtained an operating profit of 47 billion pesos in the third quarter. It rose 4.7% in peso terms and 10.4% at constant exchange rates in relation to the prior year. Depreciation and multiplication charges declined 2.5% in peso terms. Our comprehensive financing costs amounted to 25 billion pesos, which was a year before, mostly driven by an 11 billion pesos foreign exchange loss, which resulted from the appreciation of the dollar in the quarter that we mentioned at the beginning. Our net interest expense was down 12%. At 15 billion pesos, 15.8 billion pesos, our net profit was down 16% from the prior, from the earlier quarter. It was equivalent to 24 pesos per share, and 4.6 per ADR. In the nine months to September, our cash flow helped us cover capital expenditures of 91 billion pesos, distribute 37 billion pesos to all shareholders by way of dividends and share buybacks. The latter, by the way, amounted to 22 billion pesos. Just to give you a reference, last year, by this time of the year, the share buybacks have been levels of 1.5 billion, so this year we are having 22 billion. We have, our cash flow also helped us pay down 14 and a half billion pesos in labor obligations, and reduced our net debt by 38 billion pesos in cash flow terms. At the end of the quarter, our net debt stood at 588 billion pesos, or $488 billion if we exclude leases. The latter amount was equivalent to 1.55 times EBITDA of the last 12 months. This is the EBITDA after leases that I'm talking about. So 1.55 times net debt excluding leases compared to EBITDA after leases. Relative to December, the debt, in the balance sheet was down 59 billion pesos. Okay, so with that, I would like to pass the floor back to Daniel and open for Q&A.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Carlos. We can start with the Q&A.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Marcelo Santos from JP Morgan. Marcelo, your line is now open.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have actually two questions on broadband. The first is in Mexican broadband, where you put a good number of ads. Could you speak a little bit more on how are these ads comprised, if these are fiber ads? And still in that question, if you can comment on the Mexican broadband competitive environment. The second question is on broadband in Brazil, where for the third consecutive quarter you have been losing subscribers. We saw what you discussed in the investor day regarding your network being upgraded and being prepared to offer higher speeds. But what do you expect to happen with the subscriber trends in Brazil? Do you think you'll revert these losses, start growing more with the market or not losing? Could you please make some comments regarding Brazil broadband? Thank you very much.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

I'm going to start with Brazil and then I'm going to... that Oscar can give his comments. But on Brazil, what I just want to tell you is that we have been improving and upgrading our network, our fixed network and our mobile network. And not only in fiber, we have been growing in fiber. This year, we're going to do around 2.5 to 3 million home passes in fiber. Maybe we're going to end with 5 million home passes with fiber. In our cable network, we upgrade all our cable network and almost every place in Brazil we can give one gig of capacity. So what I can tell you is that our network, our cable network is as competitive as fiber in terms of speed and that's all. I want to ask Oscar if he can give his comments on our networks in Brazil and what we're doing with the broadband. Oscar, please.

speaker
Oscar Monjausque
Chief Operating Officer

Sure. Well, in Brazil, as you mentioned, we've been investing to getting the fiber closer to the customer. And then we have a network that is fully resilient for the customers. market speed needs. Even it's a very competitive market and has been changed. I mean, the traditional telco has been upgrade its networks. As you know, the ISPs start coming outside our network, but now they are getting some cities in our network. So it has become a very, very, very competitive market in speed and in prices. so what we've been doing is that we we have the network ready to deliver the speed that the markets need even we we launch as daniel mentioned one gigabit speed across all the network but we believe the the speed of course is a fact but not only speed our our new new proposal has wi-fi mesh included in in the product with two hotspots that the customers could do the right architecture to distribute the speed across the houses. And we have the best MPS in years that we've been implementing a lot of processes to improve the quality of services in the network and in the services. So it's a very competitive market. We believe that with these new products, we will get the gain in the next quarters. So I think we are ready with the quality, with the network. We reshaped the organization in order to be in a more competitive market. So we believe that we could get new apps in the next quarter.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

To add a little bit more on Brazil, just we're growing in the broadband revenue in Brazil around 5%. So we're still growing, and I think we're doing good. We're going to talk a little bit more on the pay TV business, where we have in Brazil a lot of piracy. But in the broadband business, the competition in Brazil is changing, is getting more competitive, all this environment, but we feel that we have a very good network. We can compete, we can do bundles, and we have a very good network to compete there.

speaker
Oscar Monjausque
Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, totally. And in Mexico, we reshaped our offering in the market. Even we launched recently one gigabit speed as well in Mexico. And we mentioned that the bundles with the streaming providers has been working pretty good. So I think we reshaped as well the commercial organization. We are doing a strong migration for customers from copper to fiber. So we will continue to do that, and we will adapt to the market conditions of our products. So I think it was a good quarter, and we believe that we could continue to do the effort in the next quarter.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

We are also improving our network distribution, our own stores. and focusing on our digital platforms, and we're focusing more on the sales of all this fiber that we have. So that's more or less what is happening in Mexico.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

Perfect. Very, very comprehensive answers. Thank you very much. Thank you.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Leonardo Olmos from UBS. Leonardo, your line is now open. Your line is now open, Leonardo Olmos.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

We're not hearing.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

We will take the next question. So our next question comes from Fred Mendez from Bank of America. Fred, your line is now open.

speaker
Fred Mendez
Analyst, Bank of America

Hello, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the call. I have two questions as well. The first one, just a follow-up from the answers you guys just mentioned. You mentioned that broadband in Brazil is grant 5%. I'm just wondering if there's a big difference between the FTTH and the cable growth. Our understanding is that on the new project, you guys are going with FTTH, so just wondering if there's a big difference there. That would be the first question. And then the second question, also in Brazil, When you look at the mobile segment, ARPU was flat, part over quarter. So just if you see room for further ARPU increase, we are starting to see a little bit more of a competition. So it's more about market share instead of ARPU. Thank you.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

I think the mobile market is a little bit different than the broadband market. In Brazil, the mobile market is where the four competitors that we have today. And in the broadband market, there's a lot of people putting fiber. So it's a little different market. But I think in the mobile, we're doing very good. We have been gaining. We're growing 8% to 10% revenue per year in mobile, increasing post-pays, doing bundles, and I think in the mobile we're doing good. We have been doing good for the last two years and still doing good for this quarter, and I hope that the next once in the next year we can do better. And in the broadband, as Oscar said, there's a lot more competition and we're seeing more competition. As Oscar mentioned, we're launching today one gig of speed in all the networks. If it's fiber or if it's cable, we don't have any difference. We have been improving our network in Brazil. We have been putting a lot of technology to give one gig to any of the customers. So of course, we're growing a little bit more in the new areas where we're putting fiber. So we're growing in fiber because we're putting new areas, new places, new cities. But we are also, where we have cable, we're also growing with new customers. We're losing some, growing in the other ones. So, well, that's the competition that we have today in Brazil. I don't know, Oscar, if you want to add something.

speaker
Fred Mendez
Analyst, Bank of America

No, no. Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Chelsea Colon from Agon. Chelsea, your line is now open. Chelsea Colon, your line is now open for your question. Okay. We will go on to the next question. Our next question comes from Carlos Lagaretta from GPN. Carlos, your line is now open.

speaker
Carlos Lagaretta
Analyst, GPN

Hi, thank you. Good morning. My question is regarding handset sales, particularly in Mexico and Brazil. We saw double-digit decline every year. I'm just wondering if this is due to an uneasy comparison base or perhaps this is affected by the semiconductor shortage.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. If we compare third quarter last year and this third quarter of this year, I think in third quarter of last year, we start to sell a lot. So what we don't do in the second quarter, I think in the third one, people as pandemic and COVID lockdowns start to open, then people start to buy. So it's a difficult comparison. But all over all, I think in all the world, in all Latin America, and includes Mexico and Brazil, there's lack of handsets. Maybe it's for chips, but also for other components, logistics. But there's no doubt that we are suffering a little bit.

speaker
Carlos Lagaretta
Analyst, GPN

of lack of of handsets right now okay thank you and for the follow-up daniel if you could talk about the the wireless environment in mexico i mean obviously you have some very good results with the arpu at that level and that growth it seems encouraging so if you can give us more details that'll be great thank you

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Well, I think the network that we have in Mexico is superior to all the other networks that we have here. And people is moving to the best network. So we're putting a lot, big effort in quality, in coverage, in 4.5G speed. And that's what people is choosing. So that's really what is happening. In Mexico, we have competition. We have two competitors. We are already, we do everything to be ready for 5G. So we still don't know exactly when we're going to launch 5G, but we're ready to launch also 5G in Mexico. So we have a good network. Plus, also very important is we have a very good customer experience. We have the MPS in Mexico, good, high, good distribution networks. We have 400 customers. more or less own stores, plus the retailers, plus distributors. So we are really focused on all of those things. So Mexico, we feel that we are strong also in the distribution of all our products.

speaker
Carlos Lagaretta
Analyst, GPN

Thank you, Daniel.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Gilberto Garcia from Barclays. Gilberto, your line is now open.

speaker
Gilberto Garcia
Analyst, Barclays

Hello, good morning, and thank you for the call. I had a follow-up question on the Mexican result, very strong margins. Can you comment if there were any particular drivers for the improvement? And related to that, just to confirm, With the bundles from OTT providers, do you recognize as revenue only your commission from the sale? And on wireless, another follow-up, the performance in postpaid was a contrast to the strong performance in prepaid. Was this related to the lack of handsets? Thank you.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Well, I don't know if that in wireless will be totally to the lack of handsets. Could be some, the lack of handsets. But what we're seeing is that people in Mexico does not want to get a compromise in postpaid, but they are moving some of them to prepaid. And we feel also comfortable they are recharging often and the ARPU is doing well. So I still think that in Mexico people is a little bit worried about the pandemic and maybe they don't want to have like a contract for 18 months with a rent or something like that. But they are moving to the prepaid and we are doing good. So that's what we're seeing. What I understand is that no, it's only the commission that we're putting on the bundles with the OTTs, we're only putting the commission, we're not putting all the revenue. Yeah, that's right. Okay, thank you very much.

speaker
Gilberto Garcia
Analyst, Barclays

Thank you.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

We now have a question from Chelsea Colon from Agon. Chelsea, your line is now open. Hi, and thanks for taking the questions.

speaker
Chelsea Colon
Analyst, Agon

I was wondering if you could just put a little more context around your recent M&A announcements in both Panama and Chile. I'm just wondering, you know, from a strategic perspective, what your thoughts were behind, on one hand, selling the Panamanian business but then entering into a JV and keeping your involvement in Chile. What makes Chile a more attractive environment to you than Panama in the longer term is really where I'm coming from.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Well, in Panama, I think we were the third competitor, but in the last years, our competition, Merge, Tigo consolidated the cable company, and then Liberty also buy, and they are strong in mobile and in PIXO. we we feel the the country it's a very important country but there is the population are three four million uh pops so it's not a very big country so there's not a big space for us to grow and that's really the reason why we decide to sell the company in panama so there's gonna take us a lot of years and a lot of money to improve and gain market share and put a fixed network. So that's really the rationale and the reason why we decide there. In the other side, in Chile, Chile is a much bigger country. We're very interested to be in Chile. And we are strong in mobile. We're strong in corporate. Liberty is strong in TV and broadband. I think the merge make a lot of sense. They put us in a good position in the market as the size as the other two. So that's the rationale. We are interested in Chile, make a lot of sense. The synergies are going to be very good. And that's the rationale why we do the 50-50 joint venture in Chile.

speaker
Chelsea Colon
Analyst, Agon

And do you have any concern over the regulatory approvals in Chile?

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

No. As I said, we're going to be the size of the other two. We're not going to be bigger than the other ones. No, I think we need to give all the information to the authorities there. We already submit that information and I think there's not going to be any problem.

speaker
Chelsea Colon
Analyst, Agon

Great, thank you.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

As a reminder, to ask any further questions, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Leonardo Olmos from UBS. Leonardo, your line is now open.

speaker
Fred Mendez
Analyst, Bank of America

Hello, can you hear me now? Yes, all right. Hello? Yes? Oh, good. Yes? Okay, a quick one, everyone. I want to discuss about broad financial position that you have. If you could discuss the logic behind the breakdown of buybacks and cash dividends, what has been the logic from these first nine months, and what's going to be the logic in the future? Thank you.

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

Hello, Leonardo. Well, you know, we've been... Providing an ordinary dividend that grows every year sometimes somewhere between five and ten percent per year What we have done consistently over the years is that we have Distributed whatever excess cash we had by way of share buybacks so as to remain at the desired leverage target that we wanted in the last five years We were higher than our leverage target, and that meant that we didn't really have any excess cash. We had to reduce our debt. But now we are in a position, as you have seen in the report, where our net debt has come down to 1.5 times. And that means that we have now the capacity. It's already not even the end of the year. We have still not completed the transactions. of the sale of Tracfone. You know that we have also the spin-off of the Taurus ahead of us. So these two transactions alone would represent a further leveraging of about $8 billion between the two. So we are in a comfortable position at this time to assume share buybacks. So I think that we would commit going forward that we would remain in the leverage target that we mentioned in our investor day two weeks ago, which is to remain in a band of 1.2 and 1.35 net debt to EBITDA. And basically, whatever cash we have, you know, if it's not required for M&A, whatever, then it should be available for distributions.

speaker
Fred Mendez
Analyst, Bank of America

okay that is clear thank you very much and sorry for my connection problems earlier thank you have a good day thank you we now have a question from walter psic from lightshed partners walter please go ahead

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Walter, your line is now open. Okay, our next question, we now have a follow-up question from Marcelo Santos from JP Morgan. Marcelo, your line is now open.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

Hi, thanks for the follow-up. I just wonder if you could comment a bit on the pay TV behavior that you mentioned in the release that is taking place in Brazil, I believe. people downgrading their plans as they migrate more to streaming. Is this something that you see more on Net Services or in DTH? And are you seeing this behavior in other countries besides Brazil? Thank you.

speaker
Oscar Monjausque
Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, well, as Daniel mentioned, the trend of the, let's say, traditional pay TV has been moving to streaming. And that's why we launched in Brazil Claro Box. We believe there is a trend that includes the traditional TV and the on-demand TV in a simple set of box. And it has been very well accepted in the market. Of course, not enough to settle the decline of the legacy. And this is affecting satellite and cable. It was your question. Another one is what Daniel mentioned around the piracy in Brazil. We've been seeing that since we, the operators, started to launch IPTV, it's opened up the possibility to increase the piracy in a level that we've been seeing three or four times that we had two years ago. So a big part of the market is using this kind of services in Brazil. And it's a very sophisticated operation. They hack all the content through internet or different sources, and they deliver to the customer through a set of box or through a smart TV. And they have the way to collection with PayPal and other sources. So that's what we've been seeing in the pay-to-be market. If you see the decline in the pay-to-be market in total, Year over year has declined around 8% in subscribers, and we are declining as well, 8% in subscribers. So that's what I could tell you.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

And just a follow-up on this question, is this piracy issue only as restricted to Brazil, or is it something you're seeing across other countries?

speaker
Oscar Monjausque
Chief Operating Officer

Well, mainly in Brazil, we've seen something in Central America, but I think it's all over the place, but in Brazil it's very, very important.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

Got it. Thank you very much.

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

But what we're saying, what we have said in the report is that we are indeed seeing that in some plants where we are providing certain bundles with streaming services, Those are, you know, probably not including the same number of multi-channels that we used to have in the previous offers. Okay, so those are, there's some that we, in that regard, with some people basically reducing the content that they are having from the established channels that we have. and moving more towards the type of bundles that we have sometimes involved with streaming.

speaker
Marcelo Santos
Analyst, JP Morgan

Understood. Thank you very much.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

Your next question comes from Walter Pisic from LightShed Partners. Walter, please go ahead.

speaker
Walter Pisic
Analyst, LightShed Partners

Thanks. Sorry about that earlier. Is the track phone transaction still expect it to close by year-end or is there some additional FCC items there?

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

No. We think we can close the track from transaction before year-end. We're in target and I hope we can do it before year-end. Yes, we're okay with it.

speaker
Walter Pisic
Analyst, LightShed Partners

Thanks. And Daniel, is there other – what's kind of going on in that business? I think a lot of times when – Companies are bought or sold. Maybe there's some distractions at the company. And at the same time in the U.S., I think it sounds like MV&O rates from the operators are getting more aggressive, meaning that like AT&T is offering better rates to get DISH or maybe Verizon is offering aggressive rates. So I'm just curious if there's been changes in the market because I also noticed that Straight Talk lost subs this quarter. That's not typical. I don't think – I can't recall the last time, if ever, that straight talk lost sub. So I wonder if you could give us any – I know you're selling this asset, so I apologize that it's not something that you're going to deal with. But if you can give us any color on what you see happening in that business in the prepaid market in the U.S., I'd appreciate it.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

I think the only color that I can give you is that in track form, as in a lot of the other countries, we're seeing a little bit of problem of handsets. So we don't have enough handsets to sell there. There's handsets, but remember that the handsets that we're selling in the prepaid business are lower-end handsets. really the problem in the handset business is more on the low-end or mid-end segment of prices on those handsets than in the high-end prices. So that's what we're facing a little bit in track phone and not only in track phone, in all the other countries also. So in the low and mid-end, we're facing some challenge to have enough handsets to sell.

speaker
Walter Pisic
Analyst, LightShed Partners

Okay, great. And then can I just, a question for Carlos, just the investor day was helpful and these new targets for the debt leverage one, two to one, three and a half, your business is very diversified. It's recurring revenue. You're generating very good free cashflow. I don't think there's, a major capex cycle. You've given very good commentary on, you know, kind of M&A opportunities or lack thereof. Why with this low interest rate environment would you take leverage that low? Why not set your leverage targets at one and a half or two or even two and a half, which investment-grade companies can sustain and you can still borrow at a very low rate and then use that excess cash to buy stock back?

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

Well, Walter, you know, we have always had a conservative financial policy, as you are well aware of. I think that, you know, why not one and a half? Well, today we have a part of what we would consider to be cash. It's basically marketable securities in the form of kpn stock and we would eventually have a verizon stock okay so i think uh since that is not exactly cost cash although it does provide a nice return i think it is more prudent for us at this stage at least until the such stakes are not monetized to remain below the one and a half that we had set for ourselves before. On the other hand, most of our operation, as you know, it's in Latin America. And we know that in certain cycles, particularly when there's increases in interest rates globally, that can lead to some kind of financial volatility. So we think it's always better to navigate with lighter loads of debt whenever we are expecting that there will be some financial volatility. might be financial turbulence. So we believe that, you know, there's a clear period ahead of us where there will be increases in interest rates. And I think that the way we have defined it for ourselves, we are going to be able to sail through this turmoil in a very comfortable fashion and in a very secure fashion.

speaker
Walter Pisic
Analyst, LightShed Partners

Thank you, Carlos. Appreciate that, Keller.

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Hunter. Thank you.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

As a reminder, to ask any further questions, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Alexandro Galastro from BBVA. Alexandro, your line is now open.

speaker
Alexandro Galastro
Analyst, BBVA

Hi. Good morning. I'm Carlos . I have a question regarding margins. You have been posting a great performance here for several quarters in most of the operations. And I would like to know how far you think you can go from here, and what will be the main drivers. And I also would like to know if you think that if the telecom industry overall, internationally speaking, you think if the target industry is poised to reach new highs in terms of profitability due to the digitalization of the operations. Thank you.

speaker
Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

Well, as you said, I think we have been doing that for some years, but the last year with this lockdown, we decided to increase very hard all the digitalization of the company, and that is helping us to cost control. And we are really focusing on being very efficient and focusing on cost control. Also, as we said in our investor day, we still see a lot of growth in the region. We think that we can grow with more broadband, more house-connected, more 5G, increasing R.5G, increasing wireless, fixed wireless, broadband fixed wireless, and I think it's important, and I think in the region still we have room to grow. We cannot talk all over all because I think in different countries, we're going to face different things. By an example, a little bit in Brazil, we're facing some inflation right now, and we don't know exactly how we're going to increase and when we can increase prices because of the competition, but still some growth in Brazil with more broadband that we're putting. So in Colombia, we're facing a new competition also there. So all over all in different countries, we're facing different challenges. But what I can tell you is that in America Mobile, we have been doing all the investments the last years to be ahead of our competition and to have the best network, good distribution channels, good digital platforms. We're strong in corporates. and good alliances in the corporate to sell more IT products. So that will give us more market, that will give us more revenue, and I hope that that will be more profit. So that's what I can tell you.

speaker
Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

One thing that is interesting, if I may add to what Daniel has said, is that we are now having Practically all of the operations, certainly with only one exception, they are all delivering growth in both the mobile and the fixed-line platform. They are all delivering service-learning growth on both platforms. And this was not the case in the past. In the past, it was either we were going in fixed or we were going in mobile, but not on both platforms. Today, we are practically everywhere going on both platforms, and that is tremendously helpful from the point of view of EBITDA margin expansion.

speaker
Alexandro Galastro
Analyst, BBVA

Great. Thank you very much.

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Carlos García Moreno
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

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Lauren
Conference Operator

We currently have no further questions, so I'll now hand you back over to Mr. Daniel Hash for any final remarks.

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Daniel Hash
Chief Executive Officer

I just want to thank everybody for being in the call, and also Carlos, Oscar, and Daniela. Thank you very much.

speaker
Lauren
Conference Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day. You may now disconnect your lines.

Disclaimer

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