SAO PAULO Feb 17 Shares of Brazilian
telecommunications company Oi SA jumped as much as 19
percent on Wednesday following a report in newspaper Valor
Economico of a possible capital injection for the heavily
indebted company.
Valor reported that London-based LetterOne Holdings SA, the
investment firm controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail
Fridman, could inject capital into the Brazilian telecom
operator even if it does not immediately merge with rival TIM
Participações SA as stipulated in a preliminary
October agreement.
A press representative for Oi declined to comment on the
report, which cited unnamed sources close to the negotiations.
Representatives for LetterOne could not immediately be reached
for comment.
(Reporting by Brad Haynes and Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing
by Chizu Nomiyama)