Brazil’s Oi is bankrupt – but is this really the end?

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Operators; 11 November 2025; 50673 views

Troubled Brazilian operator Oi has been declared bankrupt by a Rio de Janeiro court. Failure to comply with a court-approved restructuring plan, ratified in 2024, and the accumulation of debt not subject to bankruptcy rules were two of the main reasons cited by the judge involved for declaring the company bankrupt. She noted that noncompliance began around March this year.

Local news resource Valor International reports that, in her ruling, Judge Simone Gastesi Chevrand, of the 7th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro – where the company’s restructuring case is being handled – ordered the suspension of all lawsuits and enforcement actions against the carrier, as well as a ban on any sale of the bankrupt company’s assets.

The judge said that proceeds from any asset sales carried out during the second restructuring process should be frozen. She also approved the restructuring petitions of its network deployment, operations and maintenance, subsidiary and its call centre services subsidiary Tahto. It’s not clear what the major shareholder – asset manager Pimco – will do now.

Not surprisingly the company’s shares fell heavily on the news. But this is by no means the end. The company’s operations will continue on an interim basis under the supervision of a so-called bankruptcy trustee (the firm Preserva-Ação).

In a statement released on Monday this week, the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) said Oi’s bankruptcy does not jeopardise the continuity of its telecom services. It adds that it will review the ruling and its implications and that it is committed to ensuring the continuity of telecommunications services, even if they are transferred to another company.

As Valor International points out, Oi currently maintains over 4,664 contracts with public entities at the federal, state and municipal levels across all Brazilian states, as well as nearly 10,000 active contracts with private-sector clients. The company is also responsible for providing connectivity to 13,000 lottery retailers.

The company’s second court-supervised restructuring launched in March 2023. Its first restructuring process lasted from 2016 to 2022. It’s not clear where Oi will go next, given its staggering debts and the fact that it has sold off many of its assets already.