By Rogerio Jelmayer and Jeffrey T. Lewis
SÃO PAULO--Brazilian phone company Oi SA is in a better position
to take part in an expected consolidation in the country's
telecommunications industry after selling assets and posting
improved financial numbers, Chief Executive Bayard Gontijo said
Monday.
Oi said earlier in the day that its monthly average net revenue
for October and November increased 3.7%, compared with the monthly
average for the three months of the third quarter to 2.33 billion
reais ($878 million).
The company last week agreed to sell its PT Portugal unit to
Altice SA.
Those two achievements "will make room for us to be protagonists
in the consolidation in Brazil, always with the goal of generating
the most value possible for our shareholders," Mr. Gontijo said in
an interview. "We announced our strong result [today] to show the
evolution of our performance, and we're letting the market
judge."
The company also said Monday that earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, increased 3.8% to
544 million reais in the same period. Neither the revenue nor the
Ebita figures have been audited yet, Oi said.
Oi's clients are mostly for fixed-line services, and the company
wants to expand its mobile-phone business. One way to do that would
be to buy at least part of Telecom Italia SpA's Brazilian
mobile-phone unit, TIM Participações.
Oi hasn't held talks with Telecom Italia over the possible
purchase of TIM, but Oi has hired investment bank BTG Pactual to
look for opportunities to expand, Mr. Gontijo said.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Oi plans to join
forces with Spain's Telefónica SA and Mexico's América Móvil SAB to
make an offer to acquire TIM, citing people close to the deal.
The sale of PT Portugal would help generate cash for Oi to make
any purchases, Mr. Gontijo said. Shareholders will vote on the sale
Jan. 12, and Mr. Gontijo said he hopes they will approve it.
"This is an operation that generates value for shareholders, so
it's in their interest to approve it," he said. "With the sale of
[PT Portugal] we're going to be very capitalized, which will reduce
our need for financing."
Mr. Gontijo said the final price of that sale hasn't been
determined. The agreement with Altice gives PT Portugal an
enterprise value of EUR7.4 billion ($9.2 billion). The final price
will be adjusted for debt and the amount in reais will depend on
the exchange rate when the deal is closed, he said.
Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at rogerio.jelmayer@wsj.com and
Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com
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