A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EBITDA AND OPERATING CASH FLOW IN BRAZILIAN COMPANIES OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR

The objective of this study is to evaluate whether there is significant difference between the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) and Operational Cash Flow of telecommunications companies in 2010 and 2011. For this was a descriptive study with a quantitative approach, using the technical procedures of bibliographic and documentary research. Were used as the scope of this work five telecommunications companies listed on the BM&FBOVESPA (Americel, CTBC, Embratel, Telefonica and Tim) who reported EBITDA in its financial statements in the period analyzed. The analysis appealed both to the interaction of all data between the years 2010 and 2011 as the interaction between the same quarters. To verify the occurrence of significant differences, were used analysis of variance in randomized blocks and as the quarters corresponding to a source of variation in time, were chosen to analyze the data in the plot scheme subdivides the time. There was, first, the normal distribution of data as the presumption model. Thus, were applied the analysis of variance and, finally, to compare the means, in order to check whether there are significant differences between EBITDA and the FCO, were used the test of Scott-Knott. The results found that the companies analyzed, with regard to the analysis of all data between the years 2010 and 2011 and the first and second quarters of the quarters in the analysis, there were significant differences between the two indicators. However, in the third and fourth quarter results showed no significant difference between EBITDA and FCO.