The billionaire President of Altice has assured everyone that he has no plans to sack swathes of PT and MEO staff.
"There is no massive exit plan for Portugal," said Patrick Drahi, responding to comments made by Portugal’s prime minister that he will not authorise any collective dismissal proposals.
The government is having to answer questions as the rumour in Lisbon is that Altice already is looking at the option of accessing ‘company in recovery’ status.
The prime minister was asked in parliament whether there has been any discussion about redundancies, to which António Costa said that his executive has not authorised any such dismissals at PT, he would not and he has not received "any request to that effect."
Drahi denies everything and wanted only to focus on the scrapping of the PT and MEO brands to be replaced with the name of his own company, Altice.
The PT and MEO brands will disappear in the first half of next year and will be renamed Altice as part of a strategy to create one global brand for all countries where Altice is present, including Portugal, USA, France, Israel and the Dominican Republic.
"What we lacked so far was to have a unique global brand that reflects the international and digital nature of our group, which strengthens the strength of our brands and will reinvent the future," said Altice CEO, Michel Combes, at a meeting with journalists in New York.
The ditching of the PT brand is politic as the name reminds many of the endemic corruption in this former State-controlled telecommunications company that was centre stage in the collapse of Grupo Espírito Santo.
Former directors Bava and Granadeiro are in deep trouble, charged with a variety of offences. The tens of millions swirling around to ensure Ricardo Salgado got his way, were mind-boggling, with much of the lucre ending up in directors’ back pockets.