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Oi isn’t keen to sell assets in Brazil as it restructures

SÃO PAULO – Oi is not selling assets in Brazil as it continues to work on a restructuring plan, CEO Marco Norci Schroeder told journalists at the Futurecom event, held last week in São Paulo. “We don’t intend to sell assets in Brazil, but we can consider selling assets in Africa,” he noted, explaining there is no negation in course and that Oi considers Brazilian assets strategic to the company.

The question came up after local media published that America Movil CEO would be happy to buy the assets. During Futurecom, José Felix, the president of the group in Brazil, said the company could be interested if Oi’s assets were for sale.

On the other side, CEOs of Vivo and TIM both said they are not interested in acquiring the telecom company’s assets, noting they prefer the carrier to succeed on its recovery plan. They noted Oi is an important player in the Brazilian telecom sector.

Indeed, Oi holds the largest backbone in the country, which is strategic not only for itself, but for competitors and small and local internet service providers that buy traffic capacity from the carrier.

Oi filed for Brazil’s largest bankruptcy protection request in June. The total claims of persons not controlled by Oi listed in documents filed with the request for judicial reorganization total, by that date, approximately 65.4 billion reals ($20.9 billion). According to the company, the request for judicial recovery was another step toward its financial restructuring.

In September, Oi proposed a restructuring plan to creditors, and Schroeder said it has 120 days to work on it. “We are negotiating our debts with creditors. There’s a plan on the table and it does not mean it won’t have adjustments,” he noted. “There is no intention to use public money in the reorganization plan. Oi has a cash flow of around 5 billion reals.”

Schroeder also said the company is increasing investments in Brazil, but he didn’t give any specific numbers on the matter.

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Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.