ADJUSTed profit of TIM Participações shoots 61% in the third quarter

Operator TIM Participações announced on Tuesday that it had normalized net income of R$ 619 million in the third quarter, just above the R$607.9 million of the average forecast of analysts consulted by Refinitiv and a 61.4% jump over the same stage of 2018. In net terms, the profit was R$ 687 million reais, down 48.5% year-on-year, reflecting the non-recurring effect of the incorporation of TIM Celular. The company's operating income measured by pre-tax, interest, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) normalized income was R$ 1.72 billion in the period, which is below the R$ 1.88 billion in the forecast of analysts heard by Refinitiv, but 6.8% above a year earlier. The company attributed the advance to the acceleration in revenue of mobile and fixed services and to the maintenance of cost control. The Ebitda margin rose 1.7 percentage points to 39.6%. The country's third-largest mobile operator, TIM reported that its net revenue from July to September totaled R$ 4.337 billion, a growth of 2.3% year-on-year. This advance came due to the 5.6% increase in revenue per user (Arpu), since the base of active terminals fell, following the trend of the sector, with the Brazilian mobile market falling in total access entering for the 16th quarter in a row. The company's net debt/EBITDA ratio closed Sept at 0.29 times, up from 0.44 times a year earlier.