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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (21479)	4/16/2002 12:31:26 PM
From: grinder965	Respond to of 196545

Re: Brazil - BellSouth near closing deal over Brazil's BCP SAO PAULO, Brazil, April 15 (Reuters) - U.S. phone company BellSouth (NYSE:BLS - news) is near closing a deal through which it will take control of Brazilian mobile phone firm BCP by doubling its stake in the firm, a source close to the negotiations said on Monday. Through the agreement, still being looked over by lawyers, BellSouth would exchange its 34.8 percent stake in Israel's largest mobile phone operator Cellcom Ltd. for the 45 percent of BCP owned by Brazil's powerful Safra family, which is also a shareholder in Cellcom, the source said. The deal would leave BellSouth with almost 90 percent of BCP, one of Brazil's leading mobile phone firms, and further focus its international business on Latin America, as it has said it wants to do. Safra would end up with almost 70 percent of Cellcom, which has more than 2.2 million subscribers. The deal would also end what have been tough negotiations between the two shareholders that began when BCP defaulted on $375 million in March owed to a syndicate of banks due to a disagreement between BellSouth and the Safras over how to handle the company's debt load. The default brought forward some $1.6 billion in debt that BellSouth wants to restructure. The Safras, through their holding company Verbier, had wanted to make the payment and then see about renegotiating the debt. A spokesman for BellSouth said the two companies were still in negotiations. Analysts say BCP's debt problem began at the company's conception in 1997 when it borrowed to pay a hefty 2.6 billion reais, what was then $2.5 billion, for a license to operate mobile services in Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest and most populous state. The dollar-linked debt load grew weightier in 1999, magnified by a 30 percent-plus devaluation of the Brazilian currency, the real. The real's 16 percent depreciation in 2001 made matters worse despite analysts' belief that the company is doing well at an operating level. With 1.8 million subscriptions in Brazil's wealthiest market, Sao Paulo, BCP competes with Brazil's biggest mobile phone operator Telesp Celular (TSPP4.SA)(NYSE:TCP - news), which is controlled by Portugal Telecom (PTCO.IN). grinder965