Venezuela signs deal to buy Verizon stake

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government signed a preliminary agreement to purchase Verizon Communications Inc.’s stake in the country’s largest telecommunications company, the latest move by President Hugo Chavez to nationalize strategic sectors of the economy.

The government will buy Verizon’s 28.5 percent in Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, or CANTV, for $572 million, Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said Monday.

The agreement was “transparent” and “begins the process of nationalization of one of the most strategic companies for the country’s development,” Chacon said after signing the memorandum of understanding with John Diercksen, New York-based Verizon’s executive vice president of strategy, development and planning.

The offer amounts to $17.85 per CANTV American Depository Receipt traded on the New York Stock Exchange. CANTV’s ADRs closed up 16 cents, or 1 percent, to $16.08 Monday before gaining 47 cents to $16.55 in after-hours trading.

Chacon said the price was “worked on and discussed with the company.”

Diercksen said Verizon was pleased to have completed the negotiation quickly and have given shareholders the opportunity to sell their interests in CANTV.

The deal leaves the government with 35 percent control of CANTV.