Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has denied that he played any role in Portugal Telecom’s agreed strategic partnership with his country’s Oi, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, Portuguese President Jose Socrates has declared that he was right…
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, has denied that he played any role in Portugal Telecom’s agreed strategic partnership with his country’s Oi, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, Portuguese President Jose Socrates has declared that he was right to use the country’s golden share in Portugal Telecom to veto a shareholder approved sale of JV Vivo to Spain’s Telefonica.
Portugal Telecom yesterday agreed to sell its stake in Vivo holding company Brasilcel to Telefonica for E7.5bn. The Portuguese incumbent then announced it and Brazilian mobile player Oi had signed a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the Portuguese operator would pay some R$8.44bn (US$4.77bn) to buy up to 22.4% of Oi, which would also be able to buy up to 10% in its new Portuguese ally.
Lula was looking to rebuke reports in Brazil and abroad suggesting he had influenced talks around the local mobile operator.
The Brazilian president did play a key role in changing national competition laws to enable the merger of Oi and Brasil Telecom, in order to create a national telecoms champion.
Underlining the fact that Oi continues to be home controlled, he said the Brazilian government did not have the power to influence business between Telefonica and Portugal Telecom.
Socrates, for his part, said that his invocation of the golden share – which was later declared illegal by the European Court of Justice – had enabled Portugal Telecom to negotiate a deal with Oi, while also reaping more money from Telefonica.
