SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian telecommunications operator Telefonica Brasil posted on Tuesday a 42.1% increase in fourth quarter net profit from a year earlier, helped by an increase in revenues in post-paid operations.
The firm, which is controlled by Spain’s Telefonica, posted a 1.60 billion reais ($324.7 million) net profit for the quarter ended in December. By comparison, analysts polled by LSEG expected a 1.41 billion reais net profit for the period.
The company’s net operational revenue rose 6.9% in the quarter year-on-year to 13.5 billion reais, as its main mobile services business saw an over 8% increase in revenues, boosted by post-paid operations.
The results come after rival TIM Brasil posted results earlier this month, which sell-side analysts underscored were strong.
Brazilian telecommunications firms are seeing good momentum, analysts say, boosted by sequential price hikes and recent mobile assets acquisitions.
Telefonica Brasil’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at 5.75 billion reais for the quarter, up almost 10% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected EBITDA of 5.68 billion reais.
EBITDA margin rose 1.1 percentage points year-on-year to 42.5% in the quarter.
($1 = 4.9275 reais)
(Reporting by Andre Romani; Editing by Steven Grattan and Anthony Esposito)
