Oi SA’s bankruptcy saga took a new twist this week as Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Malavazi Martins resigned, prompting a rebuke from Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Juarez Quadros, president of the regulator known as Anatel, told reporters yesterday the departure is “worrisome” and said that it worsens an already bad situation for the phone giant mired in $19 billion of debt. Bloomberg reported last week that the government is weighing a potential takeover of the nation’s biggest landline operator because the majority of Oi’s board and management were at odds over a recovery plan. Oi’s management and Nelson Tanure, whose Societe Mondiale is the phone carrier’s second-biggest shareholder, presented competing restructuring plans Sept. 27 at a board meeting. A majority of the board backed his proposal, but the executive team refused to sign on, creating an impasse.
