a normal situation" 6:58 https://eco.pt/entrevista/...ita-demais-para-ser-uma-situacao-normal/
Luís Palha da Silva, manager of Pharol, acknowledges that Oi's devaluation was "too sudden" to be considered "normal." So the attempt to merge with PT was a "strange" deal, he says.
Pharol is today one of the main shareholders of the Brazilian operator Oi, but should cease to be when the company completes the conversion of debt into shares and the capital increase in cash provided for in the judicial recovery plan to which it is subject. Today, after the failed merger between PT and Oi, and after the former holding company becomes the holding company of Pharol, current CEO Luís Palha da Silva acknowledges that the situation can not have been normal. In an interview with ECO, divided into four parts, Palha da Silva also speaks about the current shareholders of the national quotation.
Can you tell us if one of Oi's benchmark shareholders, Nelson Tanure, is today a shareholder of Pharol? Is this information confirmed, or not?
Since about two years ago, we were challenged by the judge, by the same judge who dealt with the judicial recovery (RJ), to have an agreement with Dr. Nelson Tanure, that we have direct contacts with him and that, even he under that agreement, to become a Trustee of Pharol. He is now manager of Pharol. And so I'll just tell you this: he's on Pharol's advice. We have an agreement that comes from that time, in which, at a certain point, Société Mondiale considered that Pharol was one of the great culprits of Oi (I think it was duly misinformed, and he himself had already confessed that he had, in fact, been misinformed) . We reached an agreement. Relationships are, I would say, healthy. There is no very deep contact, but he is our steward and this resulted from his willingness to participate, in short, in Pharol's life in a direct way. It is clear from the agreement that it was necessary at the time.
PHR PHAROL SGPS, SA € 0.288 ↑5.69%
Palha da Silva: "We can not be prevented from participating in the capital increase of Oi"
6:57
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Hi, I want capital increase until June 13 April 2018
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It's a strategic agreement.
I would say it was a more tactical agreement for us. Because, in fact, there was a situation of great conflict in the Brazilian market. Our main asset is in Brazil and having peace in Portugal would also mean admitting that he could know everything we do, even knowing our true intentions as a company advisor. If he is a shareholder of the company today, I believe that his participation has decreased considerably. At Pharol, I do not know the size, but I think that when there was this willingness and acceptance of us to take part in Pharol's advice, he was aware that he was also very interested in having a social stake in Pharol . But I do not know the size.
Tanure will now be ratified at the next General Assembly (GA) of Pharol.
Ratification is a must. It was co-opted. There was a vacant space and, as you know, co-optation is necessarily, necessarily, subject to ratification in the next GA.
A few months ago, he said he would try to meet the new shareholder who bought the 6.17% stake in BCP, the High Bridge Unipessoal. Have you met this shareholder? Who is behind this company?
No, I do not know. I would not mind admitting it was Nelson Tanure himself , but I have no information. We do not have any official information, but I would not mind admitting it.
Does the New Bank continue as a benchmark shareholder of Pharol?
The New Bank continues to be a very committed shareholder in following the management , the Board of Directors (CA) and, to date, this has been its position. He also believes that this is a valuable position and, therefore, we have had full support for the policies we have been following.
“ I would not mind admitting that it was Nelson Tanure himself [the buyer of the 6.17% position that BCP had in Pharol].
Luís Palha da Silva Chief Executive Officer of Pharol
What do you define as a success in this relationship process with Oi? What do you define for yourself and then for shareholders as a measure of your management success?
For me, the pacification of RJ - by whatever method, but we have enough hope in this process of mediation launched by the judge. As a consequence, the development of the best operational performance. And a great attention to everything that happens in the Brazilian market. Therefore, systematizing, first: Pacification of RJ; Second, a valuation of our assets through a much better operating performance; Thirdly, to be attentive to all development processes within the Brazilian market that can further enhance the value of Oi within this market.
And recover the investment in Rio Forte?
R equalizing investment [all], can hardly happen.
He made the reference recently that PT's shareholders, when they bought Oi, did not buy exactly what they thought they had bought. From the experience you have, with the knowledge you have of Oi today, was it possible, to date, to realize that this was not exactly what was being bought?
Making value judgments of this kind after three years is very difficult. I can not judge very well. I do not know the situation. I know that in two years, a company where we had a call option at 20 reais, move to a valuation of four reais, (and now it is stabilized at 3.5, four reais; it has already reached less than one real), is a sudden devaluation so that we can say that we are facing a normal situation. There are normal situations of corporate failure, because a technological evolution has not been apprehended, because a situation in the market has not been properly guarded, any huge litigation of value was not properly foreseen, but ... this is not here.
OIBR4 Oi SA 3.28 - 0.00%
It is, in fact, an assessment of an operational situation that was not, by now or by far, the one that was seen at the time. And it is also information, as the reports now say, which indicate a huge lack of control and which are responsible, for example, for the disappearance of more than six billion reals in escrow deposits. The report of the auditors is clear in indicating that there was a very clear, very serious lack of control of this type of situation. But this is just one of several. So I would say that we are not in a normal situation. The judgments we have to make, we will do on our own if that is necessary, but I will not do it at this time.
Is Zeinal Bava responsible for this? Having been the president of PT and accumulating the position with the presidency of Oi in the phase in which the business was made; with the facts, with the audit you have in hand, how can it be that a manager did not realize this?
I will not customize it. I understand that Oi is much more than just a responsible one . It is a set of shareholders at the time, a leading team at the time. I will not customize it. I can have my personal opinion, but I will not make it public. I think that if there is any responsibility, it is the responsibility of the institutions.
And the business, with the data that it has today ... because time helps us to realize this ... it was worth the merit itself or perceives, today, with the information that has, that implicit other kind of constraints, objectives, that not only the creation of a Portuguese-speaking operator?
It also involves some speculation on my part, because I have no data that would allow me to say anything. Now, I say again: it is strange that a company that has demonstrated this type of problem so far has been entitled to have 100% of a great company changed in the past, as it has always been verified by 39% of a company that came into a recovery process two years later. It's too bad to be a normal thing, as I tell you.
Have you ever heard, as President of Pharol, to learn about the Lava Jato, Operation Marquis, due to the relations between PT / Pharol / Oi and Brazilian builders?
No. Strictly nothing. Pharol is not involved and has never been involved. If other people had, they are in their personal capacity and I have never been involved, as President of Pharol, to make statements. We received visits from entities that were watching the matter and we provided all the information at any time. But we have never heard of any of these situations.
With its experience of the Brazilian market (should it be the Portuguese managers with more experience in the Brazilian market, even for other functions that it had in Jerónimo Martins), is it still interesting for Portuguese companies?
In the Brazilian market, there must always be 200 million consumers, a continent-sized country that contains a series of innumerable businesses and, to that extent, may always interest investors who wish to participate at a national or local level. local. If I am asked, then, if all the local institutions operate in the direction of a frank welcome from investors, our experience has to say that, for example, in a given circumstance, what seems to be most sacred to any investor, to participate with their presence in business management, does not always happen. We, for example, have been stripped of our political rights, of participating in Boards of Directors, of participating in general meetings. Of course we do not settle for this decision and we are appealing. But the truth is that we have this difficulty right now. And it is evident that this lack of sensitivity towards the foreign investor, in this particular case, in relation to us, happened.
Flávio Nunes Editor
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