Anatel approved the entry of Portugal Telecom (PT) in Oi’s capital, granting «unanimously» the «prior consent» for the purchase of 23 percent in the Brazilian company by PT, for an amount that should not exceed 3.7 billion euros.
The Brazilian operator will, however, have to pay debts with the Telecommunications Inspection Fund (Fistel), used to cover expenses incurred by the Government in the inspection of telecommunications services, says Lusa.
In practice, this means that companies will only be able to proceed with the operation «after settling all their debts related to Fistel’s revenues, which includes fines with overdue payment due to administrative proceedings that have already been decided», says Anatel in a statement quoted by Lusa.
It was also determined that the companies will have to inform the regulator of the realization of the first act of implementation of the operation within 20 working days, «for the inspection of the tax regularization obligation».
From then on, «Anatel will be able to confirm that, on the date of the completion of the transaction, the applicants were regular with their tax obligations», he adds.
The Brazilian regulator ended up commenting on the deal between PT and Oi before the conclusion of the electoral process that elected Dilma Rousseff as president, contrary to what was predicted by the local press.
In addition to Anatel’s opinion, PT also awaits definitive authorization from the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), Brazil’s competition regulator, which should only be granted at the end of the first quarter of next year and may be subject to the application of «remedies».
