Brazil's Oi posts Q2 loss on buyout costs

* Net Q2 loss 146 mln reais vs 288 mln reais yr ago

* Amortization from Brasil Telecom buyout caused loss

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal

SAO PAULO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Oi TNLP4.SA, the Brazilian telecommunications giant formed by the merger of two rivals, on Thursday posted a second quarter net loss due to amortization linked to the acquisition of Brasil Telecom.

The Sao Paulo-based Oi, the fourth-biggest Brazilian wireless carrier by number of customers, reported a 146 million reais ($79.7 million) loss compared with a 288 million reais profit a year earlier, according to a securities filing.

The company presented the year-earlier results on a pro-forma basis because Oi, formally known as Tele Norte Leste Participacoes TNLP4.SA, and Brasil Telecom BRTP4.SA didn't operate as a single company at the time.

Revenues rose 2.9 percent to 11.2 billion reais from a year earlier. Company debt doubled to 29.6 billion reais in the quarter ended on June 30, compared with 13.2 billion reais in the same quarter of 2008.

Competition in Brazil's wireless phone market, Latin America's biggest, will remain fierce for the rest of 2009 and in 2010 as users cut back or reallocate spending amid the nation's steepest economic slowdown in almost two decades, analysts said.

In recent days, industry executives have said as Brazilians felt the pinch of the financial crisis and the spike in urban unemployment, household spending was reallocated from telecommunications toward other basic items.

In the mobile phone segment, average revenue per user, or ARPU, dropped 15 percent to 21 reais from 24.7 reais a year earlier. ARPU is a ratio widely used in the industry to gauge operational performance.

Oi said consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- a measure of cash flow and operational profitability known as EBITDA -- fell 6.6 percent to 2.4 billion reais.

The fall in EBITDA "principally reflect(ed) operations in Sao Paulo, which are still in the launching phase," the filing said.

Oi, controlled by a group formed by Brazil's state development bank, pension funds and local business groups, will vie for a bigger share of Brazil's mobile phone market of 160 million users with Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Claro, the Brazilian unit of Mexico's America Movil (AMXL.MX).

Shares in Oi fell 3.5 percent to 29.45 reais on Thursday. They have risen 6.8 percent this year, compared with a 52 percent gain in the benchmark Bovespa stock index .BVSP in the same period. ($1=1.832 reais) (Editing by Lincoln Feast)