America Movil Agrees to Buy Verizon Assets in Latin America

Carlos Slim’s America Movil, the largest wireless phone carrier in Latin America, agreed to buy assets from Verizon Communications Inc. for $3.7 billion to build its operations in three countries.

America Movil will purchase a unit in the Dominican Republic and a controlling stake in Puerto Rico Telephone, Verizon said Monday. A company owned by America Movil and Telefonos de Mexico will buy Verizon’s indirect stake in Caracas, Venezuela-based CANTV.

The purchase will expand Slim’s lead over Telefonica of Spain in a battle for dominance of Latin American phone markets, adding 15 million customers in three countries. New York-based Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, is selling operations to concentrate on its home territory, where it lags behind AT&T; Inc. Verizon will use the sale’s proceeds to repurchase stock and cut debt.

Shares of Verizon rose 36 cents to $34.42.

Slim’s business stretches across the hemisphere, in industries including construction, banking and telecommunications. His estimated $30-billion fortune places him third on the Forbes list of billionaires.

The acquisition is his second deal involving Verizon in the last year. Slim agreed to sell his 13% stake in MCI Inc. to Verizon in April 2005 for $1.3 billion. Verizon used the shares to help win a bidding war for MCI.

The latest Verizon deal boosts the number of countries where America Movil operates to 17 from 14. Slim last year spent about $1 billion to buy wireless carriers in Chile, Peru and Paraguay, part of an effort to expand his businesses in the Americas.