The board of Brazilian operator Oi has resolved to sell the 75% stake in Africatel it inherited in its merger with Portugal Telecom.
Africatel holds stakes in a number of mobile operators in sub-Saharan Africa, including a 25% stake in…
The board of Brazilian operator Oi has resolved to sell the 75% stake in Africatel it inherited in its merger with Portugal Telecom.
Africatel holds stakes in a number of mobile operators in sub-Saharan Africa, including a 25% stake in Angola’s Unitel which it could sell for a reported US$2bn.
Oi’s decision is in line with previous comments made by its CEO, Zeinal Bava, who has said the telco will continue to offload non-core assets to improve its financial profile and allow it to invest in growth opportunities in Brazil.
The Brazilian telco’s move to sell its Africatel stake comes amid a disagreement with Samba Luxco, an arm of Africa-focused private investment firm Helios Investment Partners, which owns the other 25% of Africatel.
Samba Luxco has told Oi that its merger with Portugal Telecom – which previously held the 75% of Africatel – has triggered the firm’s option to sell its 25% stake due to the indirect transfer of Africatel shares.
Oi disputes this and has previously said that the Portugal Telecom merger had not affected the Africatel shareholder agreement.
Despite the difference of opinion, Oi has asked Samba Luxco to work with it so that the two shareholders can sell in a coordinated manner to maximise the value of their investments.
However, Oi has also said it plans to dispute Samba Luxco’s right to sell its shares separately, noting that it could commence arbitration to resolve the matter.
In addition to the Unitel stake, Africatel holds a 34% interest in Namibian mobile operator MTC, 40% in Cape Verde telco CVT, and 51% in Sao Tome and Principe’s mobile and fixed-line player CST.
At the end of August, Oi was reported to be in discussions to sell its Unitel stake and fellow shareholders Isabel dos Santos and Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol were named as possible buyers. Oi was working with relationship bank BTG Pactual on the sale, which could reportedly raise more then US$2bn.
Meanwhile, it was reported today that Telecom Italia is weighing up a bid for Oi, leading the Brazilian national champion’s share price to rise by more than 8.5%. The move follows Oi’s declaration in late August that it would pursue an acquisition of Telecom Italia’s 67% stake in TIM Brasil, one of its larger rivals in Brazil’s mobile market.
