Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of the
1069 - 300 Lisboa, Portugal
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Yes _______ No ___X____
RELEASE |
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SALE OF PT’S STAKE IN MASCOM
Lisbon, Portugal, July 7, 2003 – Portugal Telecom, SGPS, S.A. (“PT”) (Euronext Lisbon:PTCO.IN; NYSE: PT), announces it has reached an agreement with Citizens Investments (Proprietary) Limited (“Citizens”) for the sale of its 50.01% stake in Mascom Wireless Botswana (Proprietary) Limited (“Mascom”), for Botswana Pulas 250 million, equivalent to approximately Euro 44 million.
Mascom, which had a net debt of Euro18.6 million as of March 2003, will no longer be consolidated (accordingly, the total impact net of tax in PT’s consolidated net debt of the transaction is estimated at around Euro 60 million). The bulk of the impact of this debt reduction will be reflected in the third quarter.
The closing of the transaction is pending the approval by the local telecomunications regulator. Additionally, the 30-day period for the exercise of the right of first refusal by the minority shareholders has started.
Despite the sale, PT will continue to provide consulting services to Mascom’s management under the scope of the existing Management Agreement. Under this agreement PT is entitled to receive a quarterly payment of 6% of the consolidated net revenues of the company.
This information is also available on PT’s IR website http://ir.telecom.pt.
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Contact: |
Vitor J.
Sequeira, PT Group Investor Relations Officer vitor.j.sequeira@telecom.pt |
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Portugal Telecom |
Portugal Telecom is listed on the Euronext Lisbon and New York Stock Exchanges. Information may be accessed on the Reuters 2000 Service under the symbols PT and PTCO.IN and on Bloomberg under the symbol PTC PL.
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PORTUGAL TELECOM, SGPS, S.A.
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/S/
Vitor Sequeira
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Vitor Sequeira
Manager of Investor Relations
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