América Móvil free to raise stake in KPN

Mexico-based operator group América Móvil could increase its stake in European operator group KPN after ending an agreement to cap its stake in the Dutch based firm.

The Latin American operator currently owns 29.8 per cent of KPN, after it increased its stake in the European group in February 2013. At the time, the two firms struck an agreement to cap America Movil’s stake in the firm at 30 per cent.

However, this pact expired after Spanish operator group Telefonica, a fierce rival to América Móvil  in Latin America, bid €8.1bn ($10.7bn) for KPN’s German mobile arm E-Plus last week.

“America Movil may now increase its shareholding to 30 per cent or more of the voting rights attached to KPN’s share capital, subject to mandatory offer and other statutory requirements,” KPN confirmed in a statement.

“The two AMX designees in KPN’s Supervisory Board will remain in place as long as AMX holds 20 per cent or more of KPN’s share capital, and at least one designee as long as AMX holds 10 per cent or more of KPN’s share capital,” it added.

América Móvil also announced its 2Q13 results this week, revealing that its consolidated revenues were up 1.6 per cent from the year-earlier quarter to 194.8bn pesos. In constant peso terms, service revenue growth grew to 7.8 per cent year on year and total revenues were up 10.0 per cent.

Net profit for the quarter was 14.2bn pesos, 7.9 per cent higher than the corresponding quarter of the year before.