Yongzhi:
This is a news from Telebras:
Tuesday May 5, 9:03 am Eastern Time
Brazil may change Telebras sale model-paper
SAO PAULO, May 5 (Reuters) - Brazil is studying the pros and cons of
holding a series of auctions rather than a single mega-tender to sell
federal telecommunications holding Telebras (TEL_p.SA), a local
newspaper said Tuesday.
Gazeta Mercantil quoted new National Development Bank (BNDES) chief
Andre Lara Resende as saying that Latin America's largest telecom ''does
not necessarily have to be sold in a single block.''
Brazil plans to break Telebras into a long distance company, three
regional wireline holdings and eight cellular firms. The government is
tentatively scheduled to take bids on all 12 spin offs on July 15.
But Lara Resende told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Monday that
Brasilia is now considering selling the firms in a series of auctions to
be held ''over time'' because a single mega-auction day could
''depreciate the value of the assets,'' according to Gazeta.
He said ''market conditions'' will ultimately determine what
privatization model is used, the paper said.
Communications Minister Luiz Carlos Mendonca de Barros has said the
government was unlikely to sell Telebras via the same model used to sell
licenses to operate on the B Band cellular frequency concessions.
In the B Band selloff, the government in April 1997 took all bids on 10
licenses on one day, then opened the proposals separately over the
subsequent months. One concession license, that covering the vast Amazon
region, remains to be sold after twice failing to draw bids.
While the government is intent on sticking to its relatively tight
selloff schedule for Telebras, the privatization could face some minor
delays, Lara Resende was quoted as saying.
Even so, ''a delay will in no way hurt the sale process,'' he said. |
