The British private equity fund Apax Partners, which manages a portfolio of more than €20 billion, wants to buy the train crash that is Portugal Telecom and has set Portuguese lawyers the task of poring over the figures and contracts to see if there are any nasty surprises in store for a new owner.
Apax Partners has appointed lawyers to start digging not long after the French company Altice declared an interest in buying PT.
The British private equity group has been encouraged by the rock bottom PT share price resulting froma disastrous period of management under Zeinal Bava and then Henrique Granadeiro under whose care the Portuguese former heavyweight lent BES offshoot Rioforte €900 which it failed to repay on account of its insolvency.
After a complicated merger, Portugal Telecom is controlled by Brazlian telecoms giant Oi which is keen to sell its problem child and to use the cash raised to bolster its own balance sheet by paying off borrowings.
The French, Altice SA group, led by Patrick Drahi, has been in talks to buy PT Portugal and was attracted when the market value of PT sat at €1.5 billion, It now is below €1 billion which is a price that should attract other private equity groups.
All negotiations with Oi are at a preliminary stage and, according to reports from Madrid, the Spanish operator Telefónica is now keen to do a deal.
Apax has declined to comment as its lawyers get busy. The company does not lack the financial muscle to buy PT outright but what Apax plans to do with its new asset should it be successful is not known.
In the normal course of events PT will be bought, scrubbed clean and presented for resale in a couple of years.
Apax is not without experience in the world of telecoms as it holds stakes in Intelsat, Orange Switzerland. TDC , Bezeq in Tel Aviv and GlobalLogic.
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Background
Apax Partners has been condemned for its unethical and predatory practices.
The circumstances surrounding the demerger, transfer of assets and subsequent collapse of the British United Shoe Machinery in 2000 led to questions about Apax's behaviour being raised in Parliament by MPs of both main parties.
After calls for an enquiry into the loss of hundreds of pensions were refused, Dr Ros Altmann described "one of the worst cases ... I have seen ...the actions of the former owners - Apax have been immoral" whilst the late Dr Ashok Kumar said, "I think these people needed flogging ..these are greedy, selfish, capitalists who live on the backs of others."
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