Brazil's Vivo Rises On Positive Comments From Telefonica Exec

SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Shares in Brazil's No. 1 mobile phone company, Vivo Participacoes, rose sharply Monday following positive comments about the company's second-quarter performance by Telefonica's new chief executive for Latin America, Jose Maria Pallete, the local Estado newswire reported.

At a lunch meeting at Santander Bank in London last week, the executive at the Spanish co-owner of Vivo said the mobile operator had turned a corner in the first quarter, and results would be "even better in the second quarter."

Vivo shares were 6.4% higher at 9.43 Brazilian reals ($4.85) in late afternoon trade on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, while the benchmark Ibovespa index was 0.6% higher.

Pallete said Telefonica would welcome a decision by partner Portugal Telecom to sell its share in Vivo to Telefonica. Such a sale would allow for greater synergies with Telefonica's fixed-line provider and Internet operator Telesp, he said.

A Vivo takeover would allow the company to offer quadruple-play services - television, fixed and mobile telephone and Internet - in Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest state.

-By Alastair Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511 3145-1479; alastair.stewart@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 11th June 2007