Brazil's Vivo To Double Coverage Area Amid Telefonica Deal
July 28 2010 - 11:39AM
Dow Jones News
Vivo Participacoes SA (VIV, VIVO4.BR), Brazil's leading
wireless-phone provider, of which Telefonica SA (TEF, TEF.MC)
acquired full control Wednesday, said it plans to double the number
of cities in its coverage area next year.
The deal with Spain's Telefonica could mean a major boost for
Vivo.
The expansion, financed by investments of 2.49 billion Brazilian
reals ($1.4 billion) planned for this year by Vivo, will likely be
aided by reduced costs at the company as Telefonica integrates
mobile services with its Telesp, or Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo
SA (TLPP4.BR, TSP) fixed-line operations, analysts said.
Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (PT, PTC.LB), which previously shared
control of Vivo with Telefonica, said Wednesday it would sell its
stake in Vivo for EUR7.5 billion. Portugal Telecom said it would
use some of the proceeds to buy a 22.4% stake in Brazilian
telecommunications company Oi (TMAR5.BR), after months of struggle
between the two Iberian telecoms.
Brazil is a key market for both Telefonica and Portugal Telecom
as they face declining revenue in their mature home markets and are
suffering the lingering impact of a severe recession.
"Gains from synergy and scale due to the incorporation of Vivo's
mobile operations to Telesp's fixed-line network justifies every
cent" spent by Telefonica, Link Corretora analyst Maria Tereza
Azevedo said. Cost reductions from the joining of the companies'
operations will likely top 2.8 billion euros, she said.
Asked about the sale during a conference call to discuss
second-quarter earnings, Vivo Chief Executive Roberto Lima said
these types of deals "create positive opportunities for everyone,"
but declined to comment further until the deal is completed.
Sao Paulo-based Vivo said Wednesday that second-quarter profit
rose to BRL236 million from BRL181.7 million in the same period
last year, due to a rise in revenue after strong growth in its
customer base.
Vivo's second-quarter net revenue rose 10% to BRL4.4 billion
from BRL4 billion.
In addition to increasing the number of customers at a faster
rate than rivals, Vivo was able to increase the share of post-paid
customers in its client base, Brascan Corretora analyst Beatriz
Battelli wrote in a note. Phone companies have higher profit
margins from post-paid customers than from pre-paid users.
Vivo reiterated, during the conference call, its plan to invest
BRL2.49 billion this year to expand services.
CEO Lima said this investment, a third of which had already been
paid out in the first half of this year, will focus on increasing
third-generation, or 3G, coverage. Third-generation technology
allows users to access the Internet and download data via their
phones.
The company plans to cover 2,832 cities by the end of 2011, up
from an expected 1,410 cities by the end of this year.
Vivo said Wednesday that earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, were BRL1.34 billion, up
from BRL1.21 billion.
The Ebitda margin, a measure of profitability over net revenue,
was 30.5% in the quarter, up slightly from 30.3% in the
year-earlier period.
-By Paulo Winterstein, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-3544-7073;
paulo.winterstein@dowjones.com
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