France's Altice negotiates acquisition of Portugal Telecom

French cable and telecommunications company Altice is in direct negotiations to buy Portugal Telecom (PT) as the Portuguese group's merger with Brazilian group Oi is faltering, according to Portuguese media reports.

According to Tuesday's edition of financial daily, Diario Economico, Altice, which already owns Portuguese telecom company Oni and cable television group Cabovisao, is in talks with Oi officials in Brazil.

Other reports noted that Altice has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as advisors for the deal.

PT has been in the process of merging with Brazilian telecom firm Oi, but the deal is now expected to fail due to the shock discovery that PT loaned the beleaguered Espirito Santo Group (GES) 900 million euros (about 1,134 million U.S. dollars) just months before the collapse of the Portuguese financial group in August of this year.

Vodafone and Telefonica are also reported to be interested in acquiring PT.

PT became a subsidiary of Oi in April of this year and its chief executive Zeinal Bava took over as CEO of the Brazilian group.