Telecom Argentina has been forced to suspend a USD 100 million increase in its capital expenditure for 2020 as a result of market turmoil prompted by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, reports BN Americas, citing CEO Carlos Alberto Montini. The operator has decided to cut its 2020 capex to USD 500 million from the USD 1.1 billion it invested in 2019, revealed Montini following the publication of its first quarter results. “In February and the beginning of March we were planning to increase our capex by USD 100 million to USD 600 million and that was because the quarter was going better than we were expecting. That additional capex has been put on hold again,” he said.
However, Montini added that the reduction will not affect transformation programmes such essential IT implementations and full management of OSS platforms that are currently underway. “We’re trying to keep all the transformation programme alive,” said the executive.
Telecom Argentina reported consolidated first-quarter revenues of ARS 62.8 billion, down 4.5 percent year on year after adjusting for inflation of over 48 percent, although the company’s mobile subscriber base rose 3.3 percent to 21.2 million on 31 March, including 18.8 million at its Personal Argentina unit and 2.4 million at Personal Paraguay.