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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wl9839 who wrote (21057)	6/19/2000 11:56:00 PM
From: wl9839	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22640

Brazil's Telemar:Expect No News On Partner Before Yr-End Dow Jones Newswires BOSTON -- Brazil's largest fixed-line telecommunications operator, Telemar (TNE), said Monday that it might not announce a strategic partnership until the end of the year. Heated market talk has been circulating in recent weeks that global telecommunications giants - ranging from dominant Mexican operator Telefonos de Mexico SA (TMX) to U.S.-based Bell Atlantic Corp. (BEL) - are lining up to get in on the Brazil market via Telemar, to no avail. "There are many rumors in Brazil, but in reality we don't have anything to say," Roberto Terziani, an investor relations officer with Telemar, told Dow Jones Newswires at a Latin American equities conference sponsored by Deutsche Bank. Four members of the consortium controlling Telemar hired investment bank Lazard, Freres & Co. in late May to aid them in their search for a partner. The group hopes to attract a company that can add competitive and technological know-how, as well as help the telecom branch out into broader telefony, such as long-distance services. Terziani downplayed investor concerns that the consortium members may be asking too high of a price, or that they may not be using language to ensure a strategic partner that their investment can eventually turn into a minority stake. "They paid a very high premium for these stakes," he said, referring to the 1% premium the consortium members paid in a 1998 privatization auction, which translated into twice the concession's book value. Meanwhile, Telemar's annual tariff increases are pending approval from Brazilian telecommunications regulator Anatel Monday. The proposed fees vary slightly for each of the telecom's baskets, and all incorporate the 14.21% inflation rate determined by the government. To slightly offset the higher rates, Telemar plans to increase the free "pulses," or the increments by which it charges for local traffic, to 100 from 90 pulses per month for residential users. -By Amy Guthrie, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-439-7000, ext. 1601