Portuguese investment fund Ongoing Strategy Investments, a Portugal Telecom shareholder, plans to vote against selling the company's stake in Brazilian mobile operator Vivo. PT shareholders will discuss Telefonica's revised offer of EUR 6.5 billion for Vivo at a meeting scheduled for 30 June. "At this price my answer is clearly no", Ongoing chairman Nuno Vasconcellos told Bloomberg. The offer "doesn't reflect Vivo's strategic value or the benefits Telefonica could get from merging a mobile business with Telesp," he added. "Telefonica can't expect us to leave Brazil with a handful of nothing," Vasconcellos said, highlighting his earlier comments that maintaining an operation in Brazil is strategic for Portugal Telecom. "We need enough money and conditions to go in a different direction," he said. However, the Ongoing representative declining to say what a fair offer would be. According to Vasconcellos, "the board mandated the CEO and the CFO to discuss a better solution for everyone", but he added that he has no information on how these talks are going. "The executive board must give investors a clear indication on whether Vivo is to be sold at this price or not. [...] They must take that responsibility", said Vasconcellos.
