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Telefonica says it's monitoring Brazil market, will swing deal if necessary(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Madrid, Jul 31 (EFE).- Spain's Telefonica said Thursday it is monitoring all potential scenarios in Brazil's telecommunications market and is prepared to act if necessary. Chief Financial Officer Angel Vila, who spoke on a conference call with analysts after the company unveiled its second-quarter results, made the remark when asked if Telefonica was interested in acquiring Brazilian broadband company GVT, a unit of France's Vivaldi. Brazil's telecommunications market is "very attractive" but "investment-intensive," Vila said, adding that "the time and conditions have to be right for everyone" before market consolidation can occur. Telefonica owns Brazil's leading wireless provider, Vivo, and also has a stake in Telecom Italia, which controls TIM Brasil, one of the Brazilian market's leading mobile phone companies. Brazilian anti-trust regulators has demanded that the Madrid-based telecommunications giant either reduce its share in Telecom Italia or persuade TI to sell its Brazilian unit to another company. In response to those regulatory demands, Telefonica earlier this month moved to reduce its stake in Telecom Italia to below 10 percent through the sale of 750 million euros ($1 billion) in convertible bonds. EFE jmj-nca/mc (c) 2014 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |