Argentina freezes stakes in telecoms antitrust caseReuters
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Argentina's antitrust commission ordered Telecom Italia not to change its participation in Telecom Argentina due to concerns ...
Argentina freezes stakes in telecoms antitrust case
CNDC (Comision National de defensa de la Competencia) invited Telecom Italia not to exercise any call option (over Sofora) aimed to get control over Telecom Argentina. The call otion has to be exercised within January 15th. Will Telecom Italia exercise the call option despite the explicit opposition of CNDC? It seems also that Telecom Italia has not yet been officially noticed by CNDC. So what is going to happen? As a matter of fact Telecom Argentina has a strategic relevance for Telecom Italia that is likely to exercise the call option anyway. CNDC in the meantime is trying to verify if Telefonica presence as a shareholder of Telecom Italia through TELCO is affecting in some way Argentinian telecommunication market. The call option was acquired by Telecom Italia when in 2003 gave 60 MUSD, part of 125 MUSD that Werthein group had to pay to France Telecom to acquire 48% of Sofora. Now the call option has a total value of approx 198 MUSD that is a good business for Werthein family even if well below the current market value of Telecom Argentina. As a matter of fact Telecom Argentina improved a lot its position in the Argentinian market becoming and a striong competitor of Telefonica de Argentina and of Claro. The call option has a strategic relevance for Telelcom Italia and a direct involvement of national Government in this issue is likely to take place in case werthein family willnot honour the commitment. We shall wait one week more to see what is going to happen.
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