Telefonica rules out Vivo stake sale to PT
MADRID, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Spanish telecoms group Telefonica (TEF.MC) on Wednesday said it was not interested in selling its 50 percent holding in Brazilian mobile operator Vivo (VIVO4.SA) after Portugal Telecom (PTC.LS) said it wanted to buy the stake.
On the contrary, Telefonica said it still wanted to buy out Portugal Telecom's stake in Vivo, which is a 50-50 joint venture between the two firms.
"Telefonica has exactly the same position that its chairman expressed this summer," Antonio Viana-Baptista, head of Telefonica's Spanish operations, told reporters when asked about Portugal Telecom's interest in buying its Vivo stake.
In July, Telefonica's chairman, Cesar Alierta, told the Financial Times the Spanish telecoms firm had made a bid of more than 3 billion euros ($4.3 billion) for the other half of Vivo.
"We are interested in reinforcing our presence in Brazil and for this we want to buy the stake (of Portugal Telecom) in Vivo," Viana-Baptista said.
In an interview published in Portugal's Diario Economico newspaper last Monday, PT Chief Executive Henrique Granadeiro said he knew Telefonica wanted to buy PT's 50 percent stake in Vivo and Telefonica knew PT wanted to buy its 50 percent stake. PT's relations with Telefonica have soured since the Spanish heavyweight sided with Portuguese telecoms group Sonaecom (SNC.LS) in a failed hostile bid for PT in March.
Vivo has slowly recovered from years of weak performance, which according to analysts has played a role in Telefonica and PT's growing interest in gaining full control of the Brazilian company.
((Reporting by Robert Hetz, writing by Andrew Hay, editing by David Holmes; Reuters Messaging; andrew.hay.reuters.com@reuters.net; +34 91 585 21 58))
($1=.7057 Euro) Keywords: TELEFONICA VIVO/
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