America Movil reported that its subsidiary Claro Brazil closed the purchase of a stake in the cellular assets of the phone oiafter a process started in mid-2020 and in which the operators also participated TIM of Telecom Italia and Vivo of Telefónica.
Claro will pay 3,572 million reais, about 773 million dollars, for the Oi assets that turned out to be of interest to it.
“The transaction creates additional value for Claro, its shareholders and customers, through growth, generation of operational efficiencies and improvements in the quality of service,” said América Móvil.
In 2020, the operators TIM, Claro and Vivo, subsidiaries of Telecom Italia, América Móvil and Telefónica in Brazil, agreed to buy the cellular business of their competitor Oi, for an amount of 16,500 million reais or 3,228 million dollars of that year.
Oi had decided to concentrate on the fixed and wholesale Internet markets, through fiber optic networks and after presenting financial statements in the red.
The company was also seeking to divest some 1,000 towers separately to raise resources that would allow it to go for frequencies in the 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz bands, which Brazil considers useful for the 5G ecosystem on advanced wireless services.
The tripartite offer of these three Oi competitors, binding since September of that year, was approved by a judge in Rio de Janeiro, the city where Oi has its headquarters.
Oi’s cellular business was around 34 million mobile customers in 2020, served from 2G, 3G and 4G networks and with an average monthly consumption equivalent to 71 Mexican pesos.
Its participation in the Brazilian market was equivalent to 12.1% of the total in mid-2020, compared to 38.5%, 20.7% and 27.5% of Vivo, TIM and Claro, respectively.
