The Portuguese co-founder of Altice has criticised Portugal’s government and has made the error of assuming that, because the French-owned group owns significant assets in the country, it is above the rules and regulations that govern domestic companies.
Altice’s Armando Pereira said today that the Portuguese government "often does not see the importance" of the French group's investment in Portugal and said that he senses that the government “does not like” the company that bought PT Portugal two years ago and currently is buying the company that owns Media Capital SA along with its significant Portuguese media assets.
On the eve of a workers’ strike by PT workers and former workers, over the transfer of contracts to Altice subsidiaries, Pereira said that "Altice invests in Portugal in a very important way,” referring to the PT purchase and the July 14th €440 million purchase by Altice to buy Prisa, which gives it control of Media Capital SGPS, SA, which in turn owns tvi and other significant Portuguese media assets.
Some already have demanded that the Portuguese government blocks this deal, notably the secretary general of the Communist Party, Jerónimo de Sousa, who said "it takes courage and determination to choose between national interests the power of a multinational."
The coordinator of the Left Block, Catarina Martins, also questioned the deal, namely Altice's plan, as part of the tvi deal, to fire more than 3,000 PT employees.
Catarina Martins said that "a country that takes itself seriously can not allow this to happen."
Armando Pereira said he did not understand the opposition to the deal, but assured the country that the Altice group will continue to invest in Portugal and already runs 12 call centres.
The prime minister also has expressed concern about the future of PT, is worried about sackings and has pointed to Altice’s "serious failures" as one of the owners of SIRESP SA which provides the flawed technology that failed during the Pedrógão Grande fire in the district of Leiria, which caused 64 deaths.
The Regulatory Entity for Social Communication (ERC) has to decide on the Prisa deal as it affects tvi. The final decision on the takeover will be made by the Competition Authority.
