Portuguese and Spanish telcos join battle for Brazil

THE FALL-OUT from a failed attempt by upstart, Sonaecom, to acquired Portugal Telecom (PT) will be a battle over who controls Vivo, Brazil's largest mobile operator.

In order to gain control of PT, Sonaecom effectively had to remove the Portuguese government's golden share in the company. But plans to do so were rejected by the majority of PT's shareholders.

Sonaecom's bid was backed by Telefonica which has managed to massively cheese off PT's existing management. They suspect Telefonica's support for Sonaecom was a bid to get its hands on Vivo.

PT and Telefonica have an equal share in around 63 per cent of Vivo. However, PT's CEO, Henrique Granadeiro, has let it be known that his company's plans for expansion target Africa, and Brazil.

So PT will be seeking to oust Telefonica from Vivo whilst potentially taking control itself. It has one big advantage in that Brazilians speak Portuguese not Spanish or Catalan.

Interestingly, the other mobile operator with a mobile network in Portugal is Vodafone. It seems unlikely Vodafone would want to upset is South Amercian partner, América Móvil, by showing an interest in Vivo, though. µ

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