Brazil Telephone Co Oi Appoints Francisco Valim As CEO
June 03 2011 - 2:46PM
Dow Jones News
Brazil's largest telecommunications company, Tele Norte Leste
Participacoes SA (TNE, TNLP4.BR), or Oi, has appointed Francisco
Valim to take over as chief executive of the group on Sept. 1, the
company said in a statement.
Valim takes over from Luiz Eduardo Falco, who will leave the
company at the end of June. The chairman of the board of the Oi
group, Jose Mauro da Mettrau Carneiro da Cunha, will be interim
chief executive until Valim takes over, the company said.
The appointment of a new CEO is the latest in a series of
significant developments at Oi, including the purchase of a large,
though minority, stake by Portugal Telecom SGPS (PT, PTC.LB), and a
more recent move to simplify the group's ownership structure.
Valim is currently general manager of credit-score bureau Serasa
Experian, and has in the past been the chief executive of Brazilian
cable TV company Net, which was bought by Mexican billionaire
Carlos Slim's telephone empire.
Falco has been in charge at Oi for 10 years, becoming the top
executive some three years after privatization, and under his
tenure Oi emerged as Brazil's largest phone company, with its
traditional fixed-line presence in much of the north and northeast
of the country. It has also added mobile telephones, with around
20% market share today, and 40% of the broadband Internet
market.
The new chief executive takes over as Oi moves into another
phase, now in partnership with Portugal Telecom. The Portuguese
operator sold its stake in Oi's main mobile phone rival, Vivo SA
(VIV, VIVO4.BR) last year, and subsequently bought up a 26% stake
in Oi.
Meanwhile, Oi moved last month to simplify its ownership
structure to make its shares more attractive and reduce operating
costs. The firm plans to fold four existing group companies into
one single firm, Brasil Telecom SA (BTM, BRTO4.BR), which will be
renamed as Oi SA.
-By Matthew Cowley, Dow Jones Newswires; +55 11 3544 7082;
matthew.cowley@dowjones.com
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