Mexico's America Movil says mobile growth boosts earnings; misses estimates

MEXICO CITY, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Latin America's largest telecommunications company America Movil AMXB.MX on Tuesday reported a 7% rise in third-quarter net profit, helped by higher revenue from mobile services and growth in postpaid subscribers in Brazil.

Despite the stronger performance versus last year, results missed forecasts by analysts polled by LSEG.

• America Movil, controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, posted net profit of 24.28 billion pesos ($1.34 billion)

• Quarterly revenue rose 7.6% to 250.63 billion pesos ($13.86 billion)

• Mobile service revenue increased 6.3% compared with the year-earlier period, the same growth rate as in the second quarter

• Analysts polled by LSEG had predicted America Movil would post a dollar-denominated net profit of $1.51 billion from revenues of $14.05 billion

• The company added 3.1 million net postpaid subscribers, led by Brazil

• It registered 5 million net disconnections for prepaid subscribers, mainly in Mexico and Colombia

• America Movil completed the acquisition of Brazilian broadband provider Desktop DESK3.SA in early October

• The results come as Televisa moves ahead with its acquisition of AT&T's Mexico unit, a transaction that would reshape Mexico's telecommunications sector and create a larger rival to America Movil

($1 = 18.0808 Mexican pesos at end-September)