Oi TelCom in Brazil Loses Two Top Executives Amidst Bankruptcy

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A week after presenting its bankruptcy recovery plan, Brazilian telephone company, Oi, announced that its CFO had resigned. According to the company, which filed earlier this year for bankruptcy protection, Flavio Nicolay Guimaraes will be replaced by Ricardo Malavazi Martins, currently on the Board of Directors.

Guimaraes was the second executive linked to the company to resign on Monday. Earlier in the day, board member Marcos Grodetzky, also handed in his resignation.

Martins has previously worked at Brazilian bank Bradesco BBDC4and was CFO for Petros, the pension fund for state-run oil company Petrobras.

Meanwhile, creditors from one of Brazil’s largest telecommunications companies are criticizing the recovery plan which calls for a reduction of nearly seventy percent of the values of the company’s bonds issued abroad.

According to the plan the telecommunication operator has proposed turning the US$10.1 billion debt into R$10 billion and giving creditors 85 percent of the firm if the company does not pay the debt in three years’ time.

Oi, filed a bankruptcy recovery request on June 20th, after restructuring talks with major shareholders failed. The company was said at the time of the filing to register debts totaling R$65.4 billion. The recovery request was considered the largest in Brazil’s history.

In addition to Oi’s landline company, the conglomerate also owns Oi Móvel, Telemar Norte Leste, Copart 4 Participações, Copart 5 Participações, Portugal Telecom International Finance BV and Oi Brasil Holdings Coöperatief U.A.

Oi, along with Vivo, is one the largest telephone company in Brazil, with 34.4 percent share in fixed telephone service and 18.6 percent of participation in the mobile telephone segment.