The Portuguese government has told a Portugal Telecom shareholder to vote against Telefónica’s attempted bid to control Brazilian JV Vivo. The move comes ahead of an EGM on Wednesday, when shareholders will vote on the Spanish incumbent’s E6.5bn bid on…
The Portuguese government has told a Portugal Telecom shareholder to vote against Telefónica’s attempted bid to control Brazilian JV Vivo. The move comes ahead of an EGM on Wednesday, when shareholders will vote on the Spanish incumbent’s E6.5bn bid on the Brazilian mobile operator, which is jointly owned by the Spanish and Portuguese companies.
On Friday, Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates told the country’s parliament that he had instructed state-owned savings bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos to vote no to the bid. Caixa Geral de Depósitos owns a 7.3% stake in Portugal Telecom.
Major Portuguese shareholders in Portugal Telecom, which also include Banco Espirito Santo, Ongoing and Visabeira, together own about 24% of the company. These three groups have already indicated that they will vote against Telefónica’s offer.
Sócrates’ demands follow previous comments on the importance of Portugal Telecom retaining its current size and scope as a means to the country’s continued progress in R&D, engineering and innovation.
Zeinal Bava, the CEO of the Portuguese incumbent, has however indicated that the government would not be using its golden share – which had been invoked by Sócrates, at Wednesday’s vote.
