A vote by Parana residents to determine the new name of Copel Telecom has selected ‘Ligga Telecom’ as the preferred option. 85% of respondents opted for the new name, ahead of ‘Flui’. The rebranding exercise will commence immediately. (Note: local press reports initially suggested that the vote would be between ‘Nova’ and ‘Liga’, although this proved not to be the case.) Sister company Sercomtel, which shares infrastructure with Copel Telecom, is not affected by the name change.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Copel Telecom has been 100% owned by Bordeaux Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia (Bordeaux Multi-Strategic Investment Fund) since August 2021. In November 2020 the telco was successfully auctioned via the B3 stock exchange in Sao Paulo. Bordeaux Fundo agreed to pay BRL2.395 billion (USD447.1 million) for the telco – a 70.94% premium on the BRL1.401 billion minimum bid stipulation.
The rebranding process was originally scheduled to conclude by the end of January – as per a timeline agreed with the telco’s former owner, Parana-based state power company Companhia Paranaense de Energia (Copel) – but delayed due to pandemic-related issues.