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Terra Peregrin in €1.2bn Portugal Telecom bid [New Vision (Uganda)]
[November 11, 2014]

Terra Peregrin in €1.2bn Portugal Telecom bid [New Vision (Uganda)]


(New Vision (Uganda) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's president, has launched a takeover bid for Portugal Telecom SGPS that values the holding company at €1.2bn and would not disrupt a planned merger between the Portuguese group and Brazil's Oi.



In a statement published by Portugal's stock market regulator on Sunday, Terra Peregrin, a Portuguese holding company controlled by Ms dos Santos, said the offer was for €1.35 a share, a premium of 11 per cent on Portugal Telecom's closing price on Friday.

The bid, which is conditional on acquiring more than 50 per cent of Portugal Telecom's shares, comes a week after Altice, the European cable group, launched a €7bn offer to buy the Portuguese assets of Oi, Brazil's largest landline operator.


Ms dos Santos's offer is for all the shares of Portugal Telecom SGPS, which owns a 37 per cent stake in Oi. The Brazilian operator in turn controls Portugal Telecom's operations in Portugal.

Terra Peregrin said it supported a planned merger between Portugal Telecom and Oi, but added that the success of its offer would involve some delays in the merger operation.

Portugal Telecom's stake in Oi is to be reduced to about 25 per cent after the planned merger.

Altice's fully-financed offer, which excludes some of Portugal Telecom's debt securities and financing vehicles, would unwind the merger between the Portuguese group and Oi.

Ms dos Santos is a leading shareholder in Nos, a Portuguese telecoms group and competitor with Portugal Telecom. But the Terra Peregrin offer does not involve the other shareholders in Nos.

Since 2010, when Portugal Telecom bought a 22 per cent stake in Oi, the price of the Portuguese group's shares has fallen from about €10 to €1.22.

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