Brazilian telecoms group Oi has reportedly hired Barclays to dispose of about 3,000 Portuguese mobile phone towers in a bid to reduce its R$46.2bn(US$19bn) debt.
Potential bidders are rumoured to include Spain’s infrastructure group Abertis, American…
Brazilian telecoms group Oi has reportedly hired Barclays to dispose of about 3,000 Portuguese mobile phone towers in a bid to reduce its R$46.2bn(US$19bn) debt.
Potential bidders are rumoured to include Spain’s infrastructure group Abertis, American Tower and private equity firm KKR, according to Bloomberg citing people with knowledge of the situation.
Oi could reportedly raise €300m (US$384m) from the asset sale.
The Brazilian telco inherited the towers from Portugal Telecom (PT) when it agreed to merge with the Portuguese incumbent last year.
Earlier this month, multiple media reports suggested that Oi may be looking to unravel the combination and sell PT following the departure of Zeinal Bava, the group’s CEO.
Luxembourg-based telecoms holding Altice is understood to be among the potential bidders for the Portuguese incumbent.
Oi later confirmed that Altice and other parties contacted its adviser, BTG Pactual, about PT. However, Oi added that it had not taken a decision regarding a potential sale, but could offload some Portuguese assets, along with other non-core operations.
Altice, owned by French billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice has reportedly discussed the potential deal with Brazilian and Portuguese stakeholders, as well as with Portugal’s deputy prime minister Paulo Portas.
Oi declined to comment.
