Brazil's Oi burns through $49 mln in cash in January

SAO PAULO, March 15 (Reuters) - Oi SA, the Brazilian phone carrier operating under bankruptcy court protection, burned through 153 million reais ($49 million) in cash in January, according to a securities filing on Wednesday.

Oi said the negative free cash flow was due to seasonal factors, which caused receivables from clients to fall by 12 percent to 1.8 billion reais in the period. The company also reported an 18 percent rise in payments, to 2.5 billion reais, citing more disbursements to service providers in January.

The information was compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers Assessoria Empresarial Ltda and law firm Advocacia Arnoldo Wald, which are the trustees of the bankruptcy proceeding.

Oi will release fourth-quarter results on March 22 after the market's close.

Rio de Janeiro-based Oi, which made Brazil's largest bankruptcy filing last June, ended January with 7.095 billion reais of cash on hand, a 2.7 percent drop from December.

($1 = 3.103 reais) (Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Leslie Adler)