Brookfield, CPP eye fibre unit
CRISTIANE LUCCHESI and FELIPE MARQUES
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are mulling a bid for the fibre unit of Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The unit, called Infraco, has also attracted interest from Highline do Brasil II Infraestrutura de Telecomunicacoes, Digital Colony’s local unit, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions aren’t public. Oi is planning to sell as much as 51 per cent of the subsidiary’s shares and has scheduled an auction in the first half of next year, according to a company presentation. A private equity fund managed by a unit of Banco BTG Pactual SA has presented a non-binding bid for the asset as well, according to a July 28 regulatory filing.
Oi, Brookfield, Digital Colony, CPPIB, and Highline declined to comment. BTG declined to comment beyond the statement.
Oi, Brazil’s biggest landline carrier, has been carrying out a major restructuring since emerging from bankruptcy protection in 2018. It proposed in June to segregate assets into four units — a plan that creditors need to approve, in a meeting that could happen this month, Oi said. The Infraco deal could fetch at least 13 billion reais if a 51-per-cent stake is sold, according to Oi’s press office.
Digital Colony, an arm of Tom Barrack’s Colony Capital Inc., is also vying for Oi’s mobile-phone unit. The surprise proposal fuelled a bidding war for the assets, which local units of Telefonica SA, Telecom Italia SPA and America Movil SAB are trying to scoop up with a joint offer. Highline do Brasil also made a binding offer worth 1.08 billion reais for Oi’s tower unit, according to a regulatory filing.
CPPIB CEO Mark Machin said in May that data centres and warehouses have been buoyed by the e-commerce trend in the pandemic and will probably continue to thrive.