BERLIN (Reuters) – The Portuguese government center -Right will not interfere in the process of merger between Hi Brazilian and Portugal Telecom, which is a matter strictly between private companies, said the Prime Minister of Portugal, Pedro Passos Coelho. Analysts have warned that the uncertainty about the implementation of the merger between two telecommunications companies increased after the recent departure of chief executive Hi, Zeinal Bava, who was considered the architect of the union. Yesterday, the interim CEO of Hi, Bayard Gontijo, told Reuters that the merger of Hi with Portugal Telecom will not be undone. Stating that the company will have a starring role in the process of market consolidation Brazilian telecommunications, the executive said, to enable this consolidation, the company may have “to go through the sale of assets of Hi and assets that came along”, in reference to the assets of Portugal Telecom. Hi hired BTG Pactual in September to analyze a possible joint bid by TIM Participações with América Móvil. In the parliamentary debate, after remembering that it was a socialist government decided to merger of Portugal Telecom with Hi, the prime minister stressed that “the state is not a shareholder of Portugal Telecom, the state does not hold a ‘golden share’, the state does not intervene in this process.” “The government has no intervention in that process, as other companies do not have, and can not be want to hold the government accountable for the decisions that private companies take, “said Passos Coelho. The Portuguese State has ceased to have a “golden share” in Portugal Telecom in July 2011, as one of the requirements of the ‘troika’ of the rescue of the country and was executed in the mandate of the current center-right government. Passos Coelho stressed that the New Bank – an institution which holds assets non-toxic former Banco Espírito Santo – is who owns 10 percent of the capital of Portugal Telecom. Continued …
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