LISBON (Reuters) - The board of Brazil's telecom firm Oi is likely to approve the sale of Portuguese operations to Altice later on Friday, but the 7.4 billion euro deal will still hinge on whether Portugal Telecom SGPS shareholders back it, a spokesman for the Portuguese company said.
Lisbon-listed holding company Portugal Telecom SGPS owns a 25.6 percent stake in Oi, which now holds Portugal Telecom's operating assets in Portugal after a merger between the two companies. A sale to Altice would effectively unwind the merger.
"Everything points to the sale being approved by the Oi board during the day," the spokesman said.
"Oi has to present to PT SGPS a justification of the sale of PT Portugal ... come up with arguments for the valuation of sharholdings in Oi, including by PT SGPS," he said.
He said that as PT SGPS is itself a takeover target its management cannot take strategic decisions. So, it has to call a shareholder meeting "to approve, or not, the sale of PT Portugal" and "the shareholders are sovereigns" to decide, the spokesman said.
(Reporting By Sergio Goncalves, writing by Andrei Khalip, editing by Axel Bugge)