Venezuelan government takes control of leading telecom firm
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| Published on Thursday, May 10, 2007 |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): The government of leftist President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday it was taking control of the country's leading telecommunications firm, a key step in a nationalization drive in strategic sectors.
The Venezuelan state will own 86.21 percent of the shares of CANTV, in an operation costing more than 1.9 billion dollars, at the end of its public takeover bid, said telecommunications minister Jesse Chacon.
CANTV is the biggest telecom firm in Venezuela, serving 3.2 million fixed-line, 6.7 million cell phone and 592,000 Internet subscribers, according to the company.
The transaction was expected to be finalized in an extraordinary meeting on May 21, to name a new company president and board of directors.
In early January at the beginning of his second six-year term, Chavez, who already had been in power eight years, decided to nationalize companies in sectors designated strategic, such as telecommunications, electricity and companies operating in the oil-rich Orinoco River basin.
Chavez announced his nationalization drive shortly after his landslide reelection in December.
Chacon announced in April that the state wanted to buy all the shares in CANTV, which is quoted on the Caracas and New York stock markets.
The government was offering 2.12 dollars per share on the Venezuelan market and 14.85 dollars for American Depositary Shares listed in New York.
The state reached an agreed purchase on February 13 for the 28.5 percent stake in CANTV owned by US telecom giant Verizon, for 572 million dollars.
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