Telefonica has sold-out of Portugal Telecom to boost its chances of winning a shareholders vote allowing it to buy the Portuguese carrier out of their Brazilian joint venture.
Spain’s incumbent feared being locked-out of the vote to decide whether Portugal Telecom should sell its half of Brasilcel to Telefonica for €6.5 billion, so offloaded 8% of its 10% share in the Portuguese operator in the hope that the buyers will vote in its favor, FT.com reports.
The sale netted the company €640 million, the paper said.
On Tuesday, Portugal Telecom’s chairman Henrique Granadeiro said Telefonica should be excluded from the June 30 vote because of a conflict of interest, WSJ.com reported.
Telefonica is keen to get its hands on Brazilian cellco Vivo, in which Brasilcel holds a majority stake, to reap the benefits of combining the business with its fixed-line business Telesp.
An initial bid of €5.7 billion was rejected by Portugal Telecom last month, and chairman Zenal Bava says even the revised offer is too low.