TIM Overtakes Vivo in Net Services Revenues in Q4

Brazilian mobile phone company TIM overtook rival Vivo in net services revenues in the fourth quarter of 2006, newspaper Estado de S Paulo reported.

TIM Brasil, controlled by Telecom Italia, reported this week Q4 revenues of 2.7bn reais (US$1.27bn) compared with Vivo's 2.6bn reais for the same quarter.

Vivo, a joint venture between Spain's Telefónica and Portugal Telecom, ended January holding on to the number one spot in terms of subscribers in the local market with a 28.9% share compared to TIM's 25.5%, telecoms watchdog Anatel recently said.

However, "this [revenues] is a more important figure than moving up to leadership in terms of our subscriber base," the newspaper reported TIM Brasil's CEO Mario Cesar Pereira de Araujo as saying.

"I'm not interested in growing if we don't maintain profitability," Araujo added.

US investment bank Bear Stearns also raised its target price for TIM Brasil's American Depositary Receipts to US$41 from US$40 on the news of the company's results.

"TIM Brasil reported good fourth quarter results, showing increasing ARPUs... and better margins," the bank said in a research note.

Bear Stearns sees a gradual improvement for 2007 in TIM's margins, due to a slowdown in subscriber growth, Estado reported."

Posted to the site on 8th March 2007