Telefonica SA turned down a request from Portugal Telecom SGPS SA to extend the deadline for its 7.15 billion euro (US$9.2 billion) offer for the Portuguese company’s stake in Brazil’s largest wireless operator.
“The offer, in accordance with its terms and conditions, expired on [Friday],” Telefonica told the Lisbon-based company, according to a copy of the fax published today in a regulatory filing.
Portugal Telecom had asked for an extension to July 28.
Telefonica Chairman Cesar Alierta said on Tuesday that his company would stick to the deadline of its offer for Portugal Telecom’s stake in Brasilcel NV, which controls 60 percent of Vivo Participacoes SA.
Telefonica began its takeover attempt on May 6 with a 5.7 billion euro offer that it said was “fair, full and final.”
Telefonica then raised the bid twice to win over investors.
Spain’s largest phone company won approval from 74 percent of the shareholders present at a June 30 meeting in Lisbon for its offer to buy Portugal Telecom’s stake in Brasilcel.
The Portuguese government blocked the offer as it maintained power over the former state monopoly by controlling 500 class A shares with the right to appoint a third of the board and to veto capital increases, bond sales and dividend payments. Portugal had sold its common shares in the phone company by 2000.
The European Court of Justice on July 8 said the government does not have veto rights at Portugal Telecom. Portugal said it will alter its special rights in the company to comply with the ruling.
Telefonica wants to combine Vivo’s mobile-phone network with Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo SA, or Telesp, the Spanish company’s fixed-line unit in Brazil.
Telefonica, which competes in Brazil with Vivendi SA and America Movil SAB, controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, is seeking to bolster Telesp, whose first-quarter sales fell 1.4 percent in local-currency terms.
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