Mexican telecoms giant America Movil (AM) is not in negotiations with Telefonica and Telecom Italia regarding a joint bid for the mobile assets of cash-strapped Brazilian operator Oi, Reuters reports, citing a spokesman for the Carlos Slim-backed firm. AM communications director Arturo Elias Ayub told the news agency: ‘Absolutely nothing has been negotiated.’ However, he did not rule out the possibility of a joint bid for Oi, stressing that the ‘assets, locations and prices’ would have to be analysed before AM would seek to participate in any type of operational carve-up.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, last month Telefonica enlisted New York-based investment bank JP Morgan to advise it on the potential acquisition of Oi and could be willing to pay as much as USD4.8 billion for the company’s mobile assets. In terms of bidders not currently active in Brazil, China Mobile has also been named as an interested party.