Portugal: Mystery buyer snaps up over 6% of Pharol sold by BCP

Lisbon, May 26 (Lusa) – The CEO of what was formerly PT, now called Pharol, Luís Palha da Silva, said on Friday he does not know the new shareholder High Bridge which bought 6.17% of the company’s share capital this week, but said he was trying to find out about it.

“We do not know High Bridge but we are trying to discover who it is”, Luís Palha da Silva said on leaving two general shareholder meetings in Lisbon today of Pharol, the Portuguese company that owns about 27% of Brazilian operator Oi.

High Bridge Unipessoal bought all the shares that bank BCP had in Pharol, reducing its stake in what used to be Portugal Telecom (PT SGPS) to zero.

Asked about the possibility that businessman Nelson Tanure, one of the biggest Oi shareholders (through Société Mondial), was behind High Bridge Unipessoal, Palha da Silva said that would be “speculation”.

In a communiqué, High Bridge said its headquarters were in Lisbon and that it was a fund owned by Atlantis Global Investments.

JMG/ADB // ADB.

Lusa