Brazilian operator Oi ended the fourth quarter of 2015 with BRL 6.70 billion of net revenues, down 8.5 percent on the same period in 2014. EBITDA dropped 46.6 percent to BRL 1.71 billion, hurt by an impairment charge on its operations in Africa, higher bad debt provisions and gains in the year-earlier period, and the EBITDA margin fell to 25.5 percent from 43.6 percent. Recurring EBITDA was down only 2.2 percent to BRL 1.79 billion, for a margin of 26.8 percent. Oi's net loss swelled to BRL 4.55 billion from BRL 4.42 billion a year earlier, while capex fell 2.0 percent to BRL 1.09 billion.
Over the full year, capex was down 21.1 percent to BRL 4.16 billion, while operating cash flow in Brazil doubled to BRL 3.18 billion from BRL 1.64 billion a year ago. Net debt increased 24.8 percent over the year to BRL 38.15 billion. While Oi met its guidance of cash flow and EBITDA in 2015, the company said it will not provide guidance for 2016 results due to the macroeconomic instability in Brazil.
Oi had a total of 70 million revenue-generating units at year-end, down 6 percent, of which 16.3 million residential (-6.7%), 45.86 million personal mobility (-5.4%) and 7.2 million corporate/SMEs (-8.5%). Oi ended 2015 with 10.02 million wireline customers in the residential segment (-8.6%), 5.11 million consumer fixed broadband customers (-2.9%) and 1.17 million pay-TV subscribers (-6.3%). Residential service revenues fell 3.3 percent year-on-year to BRL 2.39 billion, while residential ARPU increased 5.8 percent to BRL 79.6.
Of the total 45.86 million mobile customers, 39.07 million were pre-paid (-5.5%) and 6.79 million post-paid (-4.9%). Oi's 2G coverage reached 3,401 municipalities (93% of the country's urban population), 3G coverage totaled 1,280 municipalities (79%) and LTE coverage reached 133 municipalities (51%). Mobile ARPU fell 7.6 percent year-on-year to BRL 17.30 in the fourth quarter. Total mobile service revenue dropped 4.8 percent to BRL 2.05 billion, hurt by the reduction in termination rates and customer losses, and handset revenue was down 80 percent to BRL 56 million after the outsourcing of handset sales.
