By Anthony Harrup 

MEXICO CITY -- Telecommunications company América Móvil SAB increased its net profit nearly eightfold in the first quarter on solid revenue growth and a rebound in the Mexican peso against the U.S. dollar that led to hefty foreign exchange gains.

Latin America's biggest telecommunications company, controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, on Tuesday reported a net profit of 35.9 billion Mexican pesos ($1.9 billion) for the January-March period, compared with a 4.8 billion-peso profit a year earlier and a 6 billion-peso net loss in the fourth quarter of last year.

Revenue rose 18.5% to 264.2 billion pesos, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, a measure of operating cash flow, rose 15.8% to 71.5 billion pesos.

The results beat the median expectations of analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal, which called for net profit of 27.5 billion pesos on revenue of 261.5 billion pesos, and Ebitda of 68.1 billion pesos.

América Móvil shares closed up 1.2% on the Mexican stock exchange ahead of the report.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2017 18:48 ET (22:48 GMT)

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