Six groups have moved into the second stage of the acquisition process for Brazil's Minas Gerais-based mobile phone company Telemig Celular Participações, newspaper Estado de S Paulo reported unnamed sources as saying.
Nine parties original presented bids, the newspaper said, adding that a purchased is likely to be chosen within two months.
The two companies rumored to be most interested are the country's largest mobile operator Vivo, a joint venture of Telefónica and Portugal Telecom, and América Móvil's Brazilian unit Claro, the newspaper reported analysts as saying.
Telemig posted first quarter net profits of 42.6mn reais (US$21mn), up 35% from 1Q06, the company said in a statement, while net revenues increased 24% year-on-year to 317mn reais.
In January, the controllers of Telemig Celular and its sister company Amazônia Celular confirmed their selection of US investment bank Merrill Lynch to coordinate the sale of the telcos this year.
It was not clear from the article whether the two telcos will be sold individually or as a unit. When contacted by BNamericas Telemig would not comment on whether the shareholders would sell both units together or not."
Posted to the site on 14th May 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/23736.php