Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies has denied reports suggesting it is considering a joint takeover of Oi’s mobile business, in conjunction with China Mobile. In a statement viewed by Mobile World Live, Huawei said it had ‘no plans or interest in acquiring Oi’ or any other Brazilian operator, noting it works with all of the country’s major telecoms players. The vendor was responding to a report by Brazilian daily O Globo, which had stated that it was considering a move for Oi.
Earlier this month it was revealed that Oi was in talks with Telefonica, Telecom Italia Group and AT&T Inc over the planned sale of its mobile network. Oi has also staged preliminary talks with an unnamed Chinese company – now understood to be China Mobile – and hopes to pique the interest of other players not yet active in Brazil. Oi expects to raise more than BRL10 billion (USD2.4 billion) from the sale of its mobile unit, which it hopes will help it avoid insolvency.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Oi filed the largest bankruptcy request in Brazil’s history in June 2016, after failing to reach an agreement with its creditors. The filing, which covered Oi and six subsidiaries, listed BRL65.4 billion of debt and the company chose judicial reorganisation to preserve the value of its holdings and to continue providing services to its customers.