Brazil's Oi wraps up disposal of fiber broadband, pay-TV businesses

Brazilian telecom operator Oi wrapped up the sale of two key business units as part of the distressed company's corporate restructuring and asset disposal push.

Mileto Tecnologia completed its acquisition of the telco's pay-TV unit, Oi TV, after emerging as the winner in an auction held in February.

Under the terms of the deal, Mileto will pay up to 30mn reais (US$5.2mn) for the asset, including 10mn reais within 60 days of deal completion.

The other 20mn reais fall under an earn-out payment that will depend on the number of active subscribers within approximately two years.

At the end of January, Oi had over 572,000 pay-TV accesses, according to regulator Anatel, or 6.4% of the market.

Mileto is a company created by executives from the TV, tech and media sectors in Brazil. Its president is Roberto Guenzburger, who had worked at Oi for nearly 14 years and held positions such as commercial VP.

Broadband

On Wednesday, Oi also completed the sale of its fiber broadband unit ClientCo to V.tal.

V.tal, of which Oi is a minority shareholder, offered 5.68bn reais (US$986mn) last September in a largely share swap transaction.

In 2021, funds linked to investment bank BTG Pactual acquired control of Oi's fiber infrastructure and network to create V.tal.

V.tal, which operates as a neutral, wholesale fiber provider, will make the retail Oi Fiber operation a separate business unit. The purchase of the Oi operation, however, marks its debut as a direct broadband operator.

At the end of January, Oi’s broadband client base stood at 4.3mn, accounting for 8.4% of the market.