Latin American digital trunking operator NII Holdings (Nasdaq: NIHD) posted a 12.5% rise in net profit in the third quarter on strong subscriber gains, the company said in a statement.
Net profit was US$91.8mn compared to US$81.6mn in 3Q07.
The company, which operates in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Chile with the Nextel brand, saw a 33% increase in its subscriber base year-on-year for a total 5.8mn.
Consolidated operating revenues were US$1.200bn, up 38% over last year.
"We generated the largest number of gross additions and matched the largest number of net subscriber additions in our history," NII's CEO Steve Dussek said.
ARPU was flat at US$59, while churn rose to 1.87% from 1.64% in 3Q07. Churn increased year on year in all but the Peruvian unit, with levels in Mexico soaring to 2.29% from 1.86%.
Speaking during a conference call with investors, the company's CEO Steve Dussek said the firm was looking to introduce new handsets over the course of the next few months, particularly a push to talk version of the BlackBerry Curve in early 2009. He added that the company was on course to launch a 3G platform in Peru at the end of 2009.
The company is also eying upcoming spectrum license auctions in Mexico and Brazil. The company's CFO Gokul Hemmady said that the company had US$1.5bn in cash and so is in a good position to finance any network expansion or acquisition of spectrum without having to incur to further debt.
Commenting on the global financial crisis and the uncertainty in Argentina, where this week the government shocked the investor community by nationalizing the pension fund system, Dussek said that NII's business was solid and he did not predict the situation to change.
"The fundamentals of our business today remain solid, they've been solid through the course of the first half of the year and through the third quarter and over the last 3 weeks we see nothing that would change that view," Dussek said.
The executive added that while the company saw some churn in the quarter in Argentina due to economic and political uncertainty the country has faced in recent months, NII weathered the storm during Argentina's financial crisis in 2001 and has the experience and staff to do so again.
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