Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual has reportedly won 58 percent of operator Oi’s fibre business, for which it is expected to pay $2.3 billion.
This is a rather complicated deal, involving the BTG Pactual Economia Real and Participações fund and BTG’s GlobeNet fibre cable subsidiary, that apparently involves a three-part transaction made in instalments.
In essence, however, the deal will make BTG Pactual the ‘stalking horse’ in Oi’s competitive process for InfraCo’s sale, according to news website Bnamericas, preventing other bidders from undercutting BTG’s offer.
Bnamericas says that at the end of the process, GlobeNet, which owns and operates an underwater cable network spanning more than 23,500km serving customers in North and South America, will be merged into InfraCo, which will become a neutral, wholesale fibre operation.
Oi owns over 400,000km of fibre networks deployed throughout Brazil. Through the neutral operation, it believes it can reach 32 million households passed with fibre by 2025.
Regular readers will know that the sale of InfraCo is just one of Oi’s divestments. The loss-making mobile business (sold to Telefonica Brasil, TIM Brasil and Claro Brasil), its towers (sold to Highline do Brasil), its data centres, and its satellite pay TV operation are all on the table or sold. The auction of InfraCo is expected to take place this quarter.
