Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA is in no rush to sell the Portuguese assets it acquired in a recent merger as offers could improve, Chief Executive Bayard Gontijo said on Thursday.Private equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Apax Partners LLP made an offer on Wednesday valued at 7.08 billion euros ($8.82 billion) to purchase Portugal Telecom SGPS SA's Portuguese operations from Oi. The bid followed an offer valued at 7.025 billion euros from French telecoms group Altice SA."We have no concerns about how long it will take (to sell assets)," Gontijo said on an earnings call. "We have offers. They're interesting, but could be improved."Oi is considering selling Portuguese assets to reduce its debt of over $18 billion, effectively unwinding part of a protracted merger of Oi and Portugal Telecom. The Rio de Janeiro-based company is also expected to use any proceeds from the sale of the Portuguese assets to strengthen its hand in the consolidation of Brazil's telecoms industry.
Oi SA, formerly Brasil Telecom SA, is a Brazil-based holding company engaged in the provision of Switched Fixed-line Telephony Services (STFC) domestically and internationally. Shares of OIBR traded higher by 1.42% or $0.0073/share to $0.52. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $0.40 and as high as $1.97. On average, 11400300 shares of OIBR exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 4077907.
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