Telecom Italia reaffirms relevance of Brazil
Valor Econômico - 03/06/2009
The president of the Administrative Council of Telecom Italia, Gabriele Galateri di Genola, is in Brazil and he said he will come several times to the country. He has a seat in the council of the controlled company TIM Brasil, but the main reason for the visits is to follow up closely the performance of the Brazilian subsidiary, that, according to him, together with the international headquarters, is the strategic business of the company. Galateri came to talk to corporate clients, members of the council of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) and representatives of the Government. With that, he expects to put an end to the speculations on the sale of TIM Brasil, which usually come to light. Galateri says that even with the crisis the investments of TIM Brasil are maintained. The planned volume is R$ 7 billion (US$ 3 billion) in the next three years and that, in 2009, there will be R$ 2.3 billion (US$ 1 billion) in investments. The project for TIM Brasil is to turn it into a telecommunications services operator with a wide portfolio in conventional and mobile telephony, mobile and conventional broadband access. And, according to Galateri, the purchase of Intelig fits like a glove to the fulfillment of such plans. But has the deal been closed? Valor discovered it did and that only details are missing in order to complete the operation, but Galateri is cautious in the answer: "We are negotiating and the purchase will be important in many aspects since it is a great opportunity and will put an end to the gossip that the TIM Brasil will be sold", he repeated.