The sale of BCP has run aground on the reluctance of the banks to which the wireless carrier owes 1.7 billion US Dollars. These creditors show no intention of accepting the 60% discount demanded by prospective buyers, who include America Móvil, the Mexican parent of Telecom Americas. Here?s how they calculate the discount: This kind of transaction is worth up to 400 USD per subscriber, viz. the price paid for TCO by the Telefonica/Portugal Telecom joint venture. BCP would cost more than 1,000 USD per subscriber merely to settle its past-due debts. There?s not the slightest chance of a discount as big as the one obtained by Vésper, around 80%, because in that case most of the debt was owed to suppliers rather than banks, as is the case with BCP.
Another possibility, rejected by several of BCP?s creditors, would be to convert some of the debt into equity. The problem is that BCP has stopped growing. It needs cash to boost its sales effort, hedge its debts, and invest in new technology.
M&A
