Huawei, China Mobile May Tie Up to Bid for Brazil’s Oi, O Globo Says

Mario Sergio Lima, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co. and China Mobile Ltd. are exploring a partnership to bid for Brazilian phone company Oi SA, O Globo Newspaper reported, without citing a source.

Huawei, the phone maker that’s caught in the middle of disputes between China and the U.S., is seeking the bid for Oi as an opportunity to enter the Brazilian market and expand its reach for 5G technology, the newspaper said. The plan also comes as the Brazilian government wants a solution for the indebted company, O Globo added.

Oi posted a loss of 1.56 billion reais ($376 million) last month and said it burned about 2 billion reais of cash in the second quarter, even as investors are still recovering from the company’s $19 billion debt restructuring in December 2017. The results prompted the phone giant’s largest shareholder to seek a replacement for a new chief executive officer.

Officials at Oi, Huawei and China Mobile couldn’t be reached for a comment after regular office hours.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Sergio Lima in Brasilia Newsroom at mlima11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, James Ludden