The board of Portugal Telecom SGPS has said the €1.2bn (US$1.5bn) bid submitted by Angolan entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos for the holding “doesn’t reflect the intrinsic value of PT”.
Dos Santos submitted her offer for PT SGPS, which holds just…
The board of Portugal Telecom SGPS has said the €1.2bn (US$1.5bn) bid submitted by Angolan entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos for the holding “doesn’t reflect the intrinsic value of PT”.
Dos Santos submitted her offer for PT SGPS, which holds just above 25% of the company combining Brazilian telco Oi and Portuguese incumbent PT Portugal, in early November via her investment vehicle Terra Peregrin.
But in a 29-page report published yesterday, PT SGPS board directors said the offered price of €1.35 does not reflect “the value arising from the potential growth of Oi in the medium and long-term resulting from the consolidation process in the Brazilian telecommunications market”.
They also questioned the offer’s validity and ultimate objectives, and argued that the information submitted by Terra Peregrin is “incomplete and imprecise”. According to the directors, the bid does not comply, in some aspects, with Portuguese regulatory requirements, making it impossible for them to evaluate whether or not to accept it.
As part of her original offer, dos Santos had imposed a number of conditions, including preventing Oi from selling strategic assets. Yesterday, the Brazilian telco agreed to sell PT Portugal to Altice for €7.4bn (US$9.1bn), leading to speculation that the entrepreneur would withdraw her bid.
In yesterday’s report, PT SGPS’ board said the “offeror establishes a set of conditions which are questionable (since the verification of one of them is dependent on a third party – Oi) and/or incomplete for the launch of the tender offer”.
The board also expressed concerns about Terra Peregrin’s financial resources to fund its bid, noting that the investment vehicle was set up two days prior to the launch of the preliminary announcement with only a €51,000 capital.
Finally, the PT SGPS directors argued that dos Santos’ offer does not outline any specific growth plans for the proposed target.
“The board of directors considers that the tender offer documents (and the offeror as well) have not made explicitly clear the strategic planning for [PT SGPS], and what the company intends to do, if the tender offer is successful, which, according to the board of directors, it is a critical element in order to enable the shareholders’ evaluation whether to accept the offer or not,” the company concluded.
PT SGPS has not yet revealed when shareholders will vote on the offer.
Dos Santos’ move for the holding was reportedly aimed at capitalising on synergies in the Portuguese-speaking telecoms sector by linking PT Portugal, Oi and one of their African subsidiaries, Angola’s Unitel.
Dos Santos is already present in Portugal via her controlling stake in the country’s second-largest carrier Nos, and in Angola where she has a 25% stake in Unitel.
