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New York • AT&T Inc., which entered the satellite-TV business in Latin America this year with its $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV, would consider selling or combining some assets in the region under the right conditions, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said Tuesday.
Recent regulatory reforms and a growing middle class have made Latin America attractive to AT&T. Its wireless business in Mexico is expected to post subscriber growth in the fourth quarter, Stephenson said.
In other countries with struggling economic and political climates like Venezuela and Brazil, where AT&T owns Sky Brasil Servicos Ltda., the company is open to other options, he said.
"Would we consider selling them? Yes, but we are in no rush," Stephenson said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York. "They are healthy businesses."
Stephenson said he reviewed the Dallas-based company's businesses in Latin America in October. While he said he's optimistic about growth in Mexico, where the company is investing $3 billion to offer a cross-border service for U.S. and Mexican subscribers, regional challenges loom.
Two months ago, AT&T erased $1.1 billion from its books — or almost the entire value of DirecTV's Venezuela assets as it took a conservative look at currency exchange rates.
AT&T's satellite-TV businesses generate enough cash to support themselves but aren't linked to wireless or Internet services, which AT&T prefers to offer in bundles, he said.
Stephenson said he's not excited about single-product companies.
"We always like to pair it with something else," he said. "If someone wanted to talk about a strategic combination of those assets with a different product, we'd have to look at it."
Venezuela's opposition alliance won a majority in congress for the first time in 16 years in elections Sunday as an unprecedented recession and a collapse in the bolivar turned voters against the populist policies of President Nicolas Maduro.
The country's economy is expected to contract 10 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, while economists polled by Bloomberg see inflation of about 124 percent.
In Brazil, the real has tumbled 29 percent this year, the most among major currencies, amid concern that Brazil's political turmoil could exacerbate the recession and cause the nation's finances to deteriorate further.
"We can be patient," Stephenson said. "It's not the best time if you wanted to do a deal because of the economic and currency situation."