Oi to continue pursuing asset sales this year
The sale of assets remains as a priority for Brazilian listed telecom Oi in 2014, said CEO Zeinal Bava, according to a Portuguese-language report from Valor Economico.
According to the executive, the company will continue to focus this year on the process of sale of non core assets, in order to extend its debt maturity and improve the funding costs.
In June, Oi agreed to sell 1,641 mobile phone towers for BRL 1.2bn (USD 528.9m), as reported. The sale of the towers will bring a non-recurring positive effect of BRL 1bn (USD 440.7m) to the company's EBITDA in the 4Q14, Bava told Valor.
The company’s net debt increased to BRL 46.2bn (USD 20.36bn) in June from BRL 30.3bn (USD 13.35bn) in March. Despite the positive impact of BRL 7.96bn (USD 3.5bn) from the capital increase carried out in May, Oi had to consolidate the BRL 21.28bn (USD 9.37bn) debt of Portugal Telecom, the newspaper added.
Source Valor Economico