The City Council of the Brazilian city of Londrina is again looking to sell its stake in the regional operator Sercomtel after its previous attempt failed.
As reported by CommsUpdate, the city council voted in favour of privatising Sercomtel in May 2019, and is planning a BRL130 million (USD24.1 million) ‘corporate restructuring’ in a bid to attract private investment into the operator. It is the majority shareholder in the unit, with a 50.88% stake.
During the council’s first attempt to sell its stake in Sercomtel, five interested parties approached it for bidding papers, but none actually registered to take part in the bidding prior to the deadline of 31st January 2020. On this occasion, the reserve price for Sercomtel was BRL130 million.
Acknowledging that errors had been made during this process, Municipal Secretary of Government Juarez Tridapalli said: “At the time…there were no interested parties, so we re-evaluated the scenario and defined another model, which we believe to be more attractive. In the first, the dispute was over the value of capitalisation. Now, we have established a fixed capitalisation, and the amount will also be paid in instalments.”
Under the new framework, interested parties must pay BRL50 million upfront to receive newly issued shares. Winning bidders will then have 18 months to pay the arrears.
Power firm Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia) holds 45% of Sercomtel, and the final 4.12% is split among minority shareholders.
