The summer’s top transatlantic telecoms story stumbles on like a South American soap opera. Both Portugal Telecom and Brazil’s Oi have sought to deny rumours that they are in flagrante in any shape or form.
Respected Spanish newspaper El Economista ran a…
The summer’s top transatlantic telecoms story stumbles on like a South American soap opera. Both Portugal Telecom and Brazil’s Oi have sought to deny rumours that they are in flagrante in any shape or form.
Respected Spanish newspaper El Economista ran a story earlier this week claiming that PT had signed a pre-agreement to become minority shareholder in Oi, as soon as its deal to divest from its joint venture in Brazil’s Vivo with Spain’s Telefonica went through.
PT quickly rushed out a press release that read: “Following news published today …. El Economista, Portugal Telecom hereby clarifies that it has not signed any pre-agreement or agreement with the objective to acquire an equity stake in Oi.”
Oi was also quick to deny any speculation and put a call into Dow Jones denying a similar story that emerged from a Brazilian source. The Oi press office said: “A story published in Wednesday’s Estado de S. Paulo newspaper mistakenly stated that comments by Investor Relations Director Alex Zornig referred to Portugal Telecom when, in fact, Zornig declined to talk about the Portuguese phone company … Oi and Portugal’s biggest phone company are not in talks.”
However, TelecomFinance understands that PT executives have been in discussions with private shareholders in Oi, rather than government affiliated ones. Negotiating with private shareholders would presumably be the least complex option, thought one well-placed observer, but an alliance with government owned shares could give the Portuguese greater influence in the future.
To buy into a minority stake in Oi, Portugal Telecom would have to convince the Portuguese state to relax its requirements and consider a non-controlling presence in Brazil, thought the observer.
