Brazil's leading cellular operator, Vivo Participacoes (VIV), reported Wednesday a second-quarter net profit of BRL172.4 million ($91.7 million), reversing a loss of BRL63.9 million seen in the second quarter of 2008.

Vivo's second-quarter net revenue rose 3.8% to BRL3.93 billion from BRL3.79 billion.

The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, were BRL1.19 billion, up from BRL841.7 million a year earlier.

The Ebitda margin, a measure of profitability over net revenue, was 30.4% in the quarter, up from 22.2% a year earlier.

Vivo said it invested BRL606.8 million in its operations in the second quarter, compared with BRL1.55 billion in the second quarter of 2008.

The company ended the quarter with 46.8 million customers, a 16% increase from 40.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Vivo is jointly controlled by Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF) and Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (PT).

-By Rogerio Jelmayer, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511-2847-4521; rogerio.jelmayer@dowjones.com