Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel postponed its ruling on the sale of Oi SA OIBR3.SA mobile operations, as one of its board members asked for more time to analyze the matter.
The regulator's next scheduled meeting would be on Feb. 10, but it decided to set a new extraordinary meeting for Monday, Jan. 31.
Oi's mobile operations are expected to be sold to local rivals TIM SA TIMS3.SA, Telefonica Brasil's Vivo VIVT3.SA and Claro, a subsidiary of Mexico's America Movil AMXL.MX. They won the assets in a 2020 auction with a joint bid of 16.5 billion reais ($3.06 billion).
Prior to board member Vicente Aquino requesting an additional period of time to review the matter, rapporteur Emmanoel Campelo had recommended the deal be approved with a few reservations.
Shares in Oi were stable at 1.01 real in afternoon trading, after falling as much as 7% earlier. TIM's shares were up about 0.5% and Telefonica Brasil about 0.8% each, while Brazil's Bovespa stock index .BVSP dropped 0.1%.
Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/brazil-regulator-moves-ruling-on-oi-mobile-ops-sale-to-monday