Who stays with Oi’s customers, food salts inflation and what matters in the market

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tight approval

In a dispute resolved by Minerva’s vote, Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) approved this Wednesday (9) the purchase of Oi’s mobile networks by rivals TIM, Vivo and Claro for BRL 16.5 billion.

The “medicines”: to mitigate market concentration, CADE ordered the offer to third parties of infrastructure without any type of discrimination, especially in terms of price.

Buyers will also have to offer to the market, on a secondary basis, Oi frequencies that are not being used. See how Oi’s resources and customers are divided:

• TIM: will disburse BRL 7.3 billion and will be with 14.5 million of customers (40% of the total). It will assume the area codes 11, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 32, 51, 53, 54, 55, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73, 75, 89, 93 , 94, 95, 96, 97 and 99;
• Alive: will spend BRL 5.5 billion and will receive 10.5 million of customers (about 29%). You will have the DDDs 12, 41, 42, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88 and 98;
• Sure: with disbursement of BRL 3.7 billionwill be with the 15 million (31%) remaining, with area codes 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 27, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 71 , 74, 77, 79, 87, 91 and 92.

Customer transfer: companies will have to send a notice. If they do not accept, the telecoms will have to migrate them to the operator desired by the customer. Until then, he will continue to be served by Oi.

• Of course, TIM and Vivo, today with 80% of the market, will go to 97% with the purchase of Oi Móvel.

Repercussion: under judicial recovery since 2016, Oi saw its shares show strong volatility during the vote, and ended the day with a fall of 2.88%. Tim (5%) and alive (2.7%) ended up sharply.

Shuttle: the last few days were filled with disputes about the purchase of Oi Móvel by the three rivals.

First, the MPF prosecutor with Cade asked the agency to veto the operation. On Monday (7), Anatel stated that it will reassess its authorization for the operation after an annulment request filed by Copel.

ANS bars transfer of Amil customers

The ANS (National Supplementary Health Agency) prevented on Tuesday (8) the transfer of control of APS, which manages Amil’s individual and family health plans, to the Fiord Capital fund.

The regulator claimed lack of information about the change in corporate control. THE leaf heard from Amil customers who fear the plan will be broken after the transfer.

Understand: at the end of last year, Amil agreed with the fund to pay the amount of BRL 3 billion for him to assume the 330 thousand users from the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Paraná. These customers belong to individual and family plans, which are in deficit.

Lucrative: collective modality users represent the majority of Amil’s customers, the third largest operator in the country. An eventual sale of the company by the American UnitedHealth, which controls it, could move between R$ 15 billion and R$ 20 billion, according to Bank of America.

How is it: APS, which since the beginning of the year was under the command of Fiord, now returns to being an operator of Grupo Amil. The operator said in a note that it is reviewing the process of buying and selling APS in response to questions raised by the regulatory agency.

Opinion:

Food salt inflation

Brazilian inflation started the year with a high of 0.54% in January, informed this Wednesday (9) the IBGE. It is the highest result for the month since 2016.

In numbers: the result was a deceleration in relation to December (0.73%), but the index still accumulates a double-digit advance in the 12 months, with 10.38%. The rise for the month came in line with market estimates.

What explains: January inflation was driven by the food and beverage group, which rose 1.11% and had the highest individual impact (0.23 percentage point).

Villains: ground coffee prices (4.75%) rose for the 11th consecutive month. Other highlights were carrots (27.64%), onions (12.43%), potatoes (9.65%) and tomatoes (6.21%).

why it matters: the rise in food prices weighs heavily on the pockets of the poorest. THE leaf showed that more than a third (36%) of consumption in classes C and D is concentrated in supermarket spending, and another 11% goes to restaurants.

But the rise in prices also forces changes in other sections of the population, which have begun to review routines and plans.

Trade grows in 2021, but falls at the end of the year

Brazilian retail sales fell 0.1% in December, but closed the accumulated of 2021 with growth of 1.4%, informed the IBGE this Wednesday. The December drop came below market expectations, which had been expecting a 0.5% drop.

In numbers: in December, trade was 2.3% below pre-pandemic levels. After an advance of 6.7% in the first six months of 2021, the second half ended with a drop of 3%.

What explains: Inflation combined with the drop in Brazilians’ income and the impact of rising interest rates affected consumption and took strength from retail sales in 2021. The alert continues for this year, as these factors should continue in the scenario.

What went down and what went up in 2021: the biggest drops were for books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (-16.9%) and furniture and appliances (-7.0%). On the positive side, highlights were fabrics, clothing and footwear (13.8%) and other articles for personal and domestic use (12.7%).

More on food trade:

The year started off bad for food retail. The sector says that the month of January was a huge disappointment, with a reduction in the flow of customers and a greater than expected drop in the value of the average ticket.

What else do you need to know

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