Economy

Brazil’s Oi telecom: to the brink of bankruptcy and back

After six years of court-supervised recovery, Oi, Brazil’s fourth-largest telecom, may now emerge with much lower debt

oi telecom
Photo: Sidney de Almeida/Shutterstock

After multiple delays, Oi, Brazil’s fourth-largest telecom, disclosed its Q1 2022 results on Wednesday. The company, which filed for court-supervised recovery in June 2016, posted net profits of BRL 1.78 billion (USD 335,580). The figures are a world away from the BRL 3 billion net losses in the previous quarter. 

Oi also recorded BRL 4.4 billion in revenues – nearly the same result as last year, reaching “virtual stability,” as the market likes to call it.

The upturn appears to be a direct effect of Oi’s new business focus, as well as the sale of its mobile operations to the country’s Big 3 players (Vivo, TIM, and Claro) for BRL 16.5 billion, and a 7.2 percent cut in operational expenses. In a conference call with market analysts, Oi’s director of strategy and customer experience, Rogério Takayanagi, said the company’s judicial recovery process should end within...

Don't miss this opportunity!

Interested in staying updated on Brazil and Latin America? Subscribe to start receiving our reports now!