OXFORD, United Kingdom—In an effort to reduce third-generation (3G) deployment costs, Vodafone’s Portuguese business, Telecel, formed a joint venture with Optimus, the cell-phone division of Sonae, called Situs. Both companies hold 3G licenses and said that Situs would be charged with deploying and managing the wireless infrastructure needed for 3G services.
Meanwhile, Optimus has seen one of its major shareholders, Electricidade de Portugal (EDP), sell its 25.9-percent stake to the Luxembourg financial group Thorn Finance. The deal is said to have outraged Soane SGPS, the parent company of Optimus, which accused EDP of “parking” Optimus shares with Thorn, rather than actually selling them. EDP, which has a shareholding in ONI, a rival cell-phone operator, claimed it was forced to sell its share of Optimus by the end of March after a ruling from Portugal’s telecom regulator.
EDP’s action, which has provoked an investigation by the Portuguese stock market regulator CMVM and the country’s telecom regulator, allows the company to buy back the shares from Thorn anytime during the next three years.
