Oi Considers Infrastructure Debenture

Brazil’s Oi is considering a domestic bond issue this year, potentially including a tranche eligible for preferential tax treatment under the country’s infrastructure debenture law, its director of financial markets says. “The company is comfortable with the structure,” Rodrigo Gomes Leite tells LatinFinance. “We don’t need to access the market. It must make sense and liquidity must not be a problem,” he says. Oi has met its funding needs for 2013, thanks to a recent BRL1.5bn rule 476 private debenture, ECAs and BNDES credits. Given the telecoms company’s international recognition, marketing the infrastructure debenture portion to foreigners is an option, though Gomes Leite notes most of the pitches he is considering focus on domestic retail buyers. He does not indicate a likely size or any banks already involved. Gomes Leite says there is no need to access the dollar market, but given low rates, an opportunistic liability management transaction would not be impossible under the right circumstances.