Portuguese cableco Zon Multimedia and Sonaecom, parent of the country’s number three mobile operator Optimus, have denied a local press report that they are in preliminary discussions to merge.
In a statement issued to the local financial regulator…
Portuguese cableco Zon Multimedia and Sonaecom, parent of the country’s number three mobile operator Optimus, have denied a local press report that they are in preliminary discussions to merge.
In a statement issued to the local financial regulator the CMVM, Zon said it was not currently entertaining negotiations regarding a possible merger with Sonaecom.
However, the company did say it had looked at opportunities for consolidation over the past few months both at home and abroad.
“A number of exploratory contacts have been held with various entities but these have not, as yet, led to any agreement, be it formal, preliminary or of any other kind,” Zon said in the statement.
Sonaecom also dismissed the report, but said it was interested in consolidation.
“Sonaecom believes that, although such process of consolidation makes sense from a theoretical point of view, as already mentioned by several of its directors in recent years, for the time being there are no minimum conditions met for a negotiation to start,” the company said in a statement to the CMVM.
In September Optimus’ CEO Miguel Almeida said a merger with Zon would make sense for the Portuguese market. He was quoted as saying such a merger would result in a stronger competitor to incumbent operator Portugal Telecom (PT).
Zon’s bylaws had prohibited shareholders from exercising more than 10% of Zon’s voting rights, but that diktat was scrapped in January.
Almeida reportedly said that this had the dynamics and could make a merger more likely.
Optimus is competing with larger operators Vodafone Portugal, which has also been linked with a merger with Sonaecom, and TMN, owned by PT.
