UPDATE: Brazil's TIM Cuts Losses After Restructuring
August 04 2009 - 8:42AM
Dow Jones News
Brazilian mobile-phone company TIM Participacoes SA (TSU) saw a
reduction in its net loss in the second quarter, as a broad company
restructuring reflected positively on operational results.
TIM Participacoes reported a second quarter net loss of 15.2
million Brazilian reals ($8.3 million), compared with a loss of
BRL66.3 million registered in the year-earlier period.
The Brazilian unit of Telecom Italia SpA (TI) said its earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda,
was up 15.5% on the year to BRL736 million. Ebitda margin was
22.3%, up from 20% in the same quarter of 2008.
The No. 3 cellphone provider is in the middle of a restructuring
aimed at improving the quality of its services and refocusing on
the higher-end postpaid segment of the Brazilian market.
Because of the restructuring, the company saw its revenue
increase more than its costs in the period.
Second-quarter net revenue totaled BRL3.3 billion, up 3.7% from
BRL3.18 billion in the same period the year before, according to
the company's earnings release.
The company's operating costs totaled BRL2.56 billion, up 0.8%
from BRL2.54 billion seen in the second quarter of 2008.
TIM ended the second quarter with 37.8 million clients, up 11.9%
from the same period of 2008.
The company invested BRL422.5 million in its operations in the
second quarter, compared with BRL1.7 billion invested in the same
period of 2008.
-By Rogerio Jelmayer, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511-2847-4521;
rogerio.jelmayer@dowjones.com