Brazil to sell two "mirror" phone licenses Friday
Reuters, Thursday, January 14, 1999 at 19:23
SAO PAULO, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Brazil's government will
forge ahead Friday with the sale of two licenses to operate
competing telephone networks, officials said Thursday.
Two envelopes containing bids, one for each license, will
be opened Friday at a privatization auction at the Rio de
Janeiro stock exchange scheduled for 1000 local/1200 GMT,
exchange officials said.
Brazil hopes to eventually sell four "mirror" licenses to
establish and operate telephone networks to compete with the
three regional fixed-line companies and the long-distance
carrier that were privatized last July.
Analysts said there was no reason to postpone the auction
because the closed-envelope proposals, including the prices,
were submitted in December, well before Wednesday's currency
devaluation, which sent markets into a tailspin.
On Friday, Brazil will auction a license to operate a
long-distance network that will compete with Embratel
(SAO:EBTP4).
The Bonaire Holding consortium, which includes U.S.
long-distance company Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON), France Telecom
(SBF:FTE) and Britain's National Grid (ISEL:NGG), confirmed it
handed in a bid on the long-distance license and will attend
the Friday auction.
"The Borari consortium will be there tomorrow and continues
as interested as it was before," the group's spokesperson said
Thursday.
Brazil will also sell a license to operate a network to
compete with Tele Norte Leste (SAO:TNLP4), which serves Rio de
Janeiro as well as Brazil's north and northeast.
The Cambra consortium, including Bell Canada International
(TSE:BI), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) do Brasil and Brazil's Vicunha
industrial group, will bid on the second license.
Analysts said the groups would probably offer close to the
"referential" prices set by the government, considering they
are the only bidders. The long-distance license was set at 40
million reais and the northeastern fixed-line license was set
at 60 million reais.
The bids were already evaluated for their technical
proposals and approved by Anatel telecommunications watchdog
agency.
Brazil plans to sell two remaining fixed-line "mirror"
licenses in March. They did not initially attract investor
interest.
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service
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