Brazil’s Oi and Portugal Telecom are merger partners, but the Portuguese firm is planning to hold a shareholder meeting next Monday (January 12, 2015) to decide on the potential sale of Oi to telecoms group Altice.
According to Reuters, Cordeiro said in a letter that a new shareholder meeting ought to be called with the aim of either ending the merger between Portugal Telecom and Oi, or approving the sale of the latter to Altice.
Oi and Altice agreed a sale in December last year, but Cordeiro said that the deal – which is still subject to approval by Portugal Telecom SCPS shareholders – makes the merger between Oi and Portugal Telecom invalid.
Although the Portugal Telecom board had initially said that it saw no reason to postpone Monday’s meeting, it has warned that if Altice’s acquisition goes through, the aim of last year’s merger between the two companies will become redundant.
Portugal Telecom and Oi initially merged with the intention of creating the largest telecoms operator in the Portuguese speaking world.
