NEC offers best price for Brazil cellular contract
Reuters, Friday, March 20, 1998 at 13:23
SAO PAULO, March 20 (Reuters) - Japan's NEC Corp (TOKYO:6701)
offered the best price to supply one million new digital
cellular terminals to Brazil's Telesp Celular, a Telesp
official said on Friday.
"They have the best price. Now we have to analyze the
technical aspects of the bids to decide who is the winner,"
said a spokesman for Telesp Celular, the state mobile phone
firm serving Sao Paulo city.
NEC do Brasil, which also includes Brazil's Globopar,
offered to supply the digital cellular terminals for 131.2
million reais, or 131.20 reais per line, beating out bids from
five other foreign-led groups, he said.
The winner of the contract will be announced in the coming
weeks, after the company has had time to study the technical
part of the proposals, he said.
The contract will allow Telesp Celular, which was spun off
last month from federally owned Telesp (SAO:TLS_.P), to upgrade
its network to digital technology, greatly expand its
subscriber base, and satisfy some of Sao Paulo's massive
pent-up demand for mobile phones.
The company now operates 1.1 million analog cellular lines
in Sao Paulo and plans to add another 150,000 analog lines by
mid-year, when it is slated to be privatized. The new digital
terminals should be installed by the end of 1999.
Coming in second place was the bid of Ericsson
Telecomunicacoes SA (SAO:ERI), the local unit of Sweden's
Ericsson (SWED:LME.B), which made a basic bid of 164.4 million
reais, and an alternative bid of 162.4 million reais.
All bidders except NEC presented both a basic price offer
and an alternative price, something permitted under tender
rules. NEC presented only a basic bid.
U.S.-based Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) bid 215.5 million
reais and an alternative price of 194.5 million reais.
Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT), also of the United States, bid 252.3
million reais and an alternate price of 224.4 million reais,
while Brazilian-Korean group Batik-Samsung proposed 373.6
million reais and an alternate price of 341.7 million reais.
The highest bid came from France's Alcatel (SBF:CGEP), which
bid 457.6 million with an alternative price of 362.6 million
reais.
james.craig@reuters.com)) |
