The transaction, which closed on Friday, is the first in a series of sales that Oi plans to carry out in the coming years.
Oi sold its mobile business to a consortium of three operators – América Móvil’s Claro, Telefônica Brasil’s Vivo and the local branch of TIM – for the equivalent of €2.6 billion last year.
"Piemonte is a young organisation that believes in the digital transformation of the economy," said Alessandro Lombardi, CEO of Piemonte.
"The pandemic has accelerated a process that was already underway and the reorganisation of Oi, which is henceforth a fait accompli, is an injection of optimism for Brazil. The total assets and the planned investments in the telecom company exceeds R$40 billion. I believe that, with an appropriate digital infrastructure, this country may be brought back into the group of global major players, finally turning the page and forgetting past mistakes," Lombardi added.
The purchase was made by Titan, one of Piemonte Holding's investment vehicles, and took place through a finance operation supported by BTG Pactual and Banco Bradesco, two banks that are to be long-term business partners.
The investment fund Alba Fund, managed and administered by Piemonte, also became part of the transaction package.
"Brazil is a continental-sized country and our data centres are unique: in addition to hosting, we can offer connectivity and minimise latency. We see an enormous potential, which is validated by our financial sponsors. We were lucky to find a management such as Oi's, with which we share values, strategic vision and excellent execution capacity," Lombardi added.
The facilities – which are now part of the Titan Elea Digital conglomerate, Piemonte's data centre holding company – are located in Curitiba, Porto Alegre, São Paulo and Brasília. According to regulators and market research quoted in the press announcement, Elea Digital now holds a market share equivalent to "about 10% of the Brazilian colocation market".
Since 2019, Piemonte has invested in the Elea Project, a data centre holding company that is one of the main digital infrastructure investment projects in Latin America.
