The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cadec) approved without restrictions the sale of part of V.tal — formerly InfraCo — to BTG Pactual. The announcement was made this Monday (18) by Oi. V.tal concentrates the company’s neutral fiber optic network.
- Oi confirms the sale of V.Tal to BTG Pactual investment funds
- Banco BTG pays R$ 12.9 billion at auction for Grupo Oi’s fiber optic company
- Oi recovers with optical fiber and leads in 16 states with 3 million customers
The operation includes the incorporation of Globenet, a submarine cables company. In the future, a change will be made to Globenet’s corporate structure. One of the new holding funds will have WIP as a shareholder (with an 18% stake). As a result, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore (GIC) will have an indirect stake of approximately 9.9% in InfraCo.
The negotiation is part of the operator’s asset sale program, which has been in judicial recovery since 2016. From the transaction, the company can obtain the necessary liquidity to pay its financial commitments. In all, the company’s divestments already total R$ 34.6 billion.
BTG will obtain 57.9% of the asset for R$ 12.9 billion. The completion of the sale now only depends on the approval of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). Rodrigo Abreu, Oi’s CEO, says that, in this scenario, the company’s judicial reorganization is expected to end in March 2022. According to him, the expansion of broadband connectivity services across the country is the new Oi’s priority.
Oi and BTG Pactual inform that V.tal’s activities do not include the provision of telecommunications services in the retail segment. The company incorporates Globenet’s services and Oi’s fiber optic transmission business.
The parties must create a neutrality committee to act in the governance of matters that may affect the neutral and independent nature of their operations. The objective, among other attributions, is to safeguard the flow of sensitive information. for Cade, this committee will have the role of guaranteeing the company’s neutrality in the market and preventing shareholders with operations or participation in the sector from having access to sensitive customer information.
In the assessment of the body’s General Superintendence, the implementation of neutral infrastructure networks underlying telecommunications services seeks to offer, in a non-discriminatory manner, the possibility for different providers of these services to compete under better conditions.
For the entity, neutral networks tend to increase competitiveness in the telecommunications retail market. “This is because they eliminate entry barriers related to the high costs of implementing and operating fiber optic infrastructure”, he adds.