On Monday, April 28, Lightpar notified CVM, Brazil?s securities and exchange regulator, that an extraordinary shareholder meeting had voted to declare its subsidiary Eletronet bankrupt, to seek a court order guaranteeing normal business operations, and to suspend the rights of AES Bandeirante Empreendimentos as a shareholder in Eletronet.
The courts might not grant an order allowing Eletronet to continue operating. It has around 2 million Brazilian Reals in ready cash (now some 690,000 US Dollars), considered insufficient to cover operating expenses, and its controlling shareholders don?t want to inject any more capital. If no court order is forthcoming, as seems likely in the circumstances, Eletronet?s customers will have to look elsewhere. The most important customers are AT&T, Comsat, Intelig, Infovias, Eletropaulo, Light, Primesys, MetroRED, Pegasus and TIM. Some have long-term contracts and not a few are fully paid-up in advance. Fines for unilateral termination alone could reach eight times the amount of cash Eletronet has in hand, according to analysts? estimates. The difficulty for customers isn?t just having to find another supplier but finding one at similar prices to those charged by Eletronet, which had a highly competitive pricing policy.
Infrastructure
