ETB continues to pressure Claro Colombia to repay debt

Colombian state-owned telco ETB is continuing to pressure multinational Claro to repay its debt to the company, in relation to an ongoing legal battle between the two companies over long distance charges.

ETB hopes that Claro will repay its debt before the end of the first half of 2014, the state operator said in a release.

The dispute between the two firms began in 2006, when ETB was ordered to pay 137bn pesos (US$67.4mn) to Claro, Occel and Celcaribe in a dispute over long distance charges.

The Andean court of justice subsequently overturned this decision, which was ratified by the Colombian state council in 2012, and Claro was ordered to repay 134bn pesos plus interest to ETB.

Including inflation adjustments and interest payments, that figure now reaches above 210bn pesos, ETB said in the release.

However, questions remain as to exactly when Claro could repay its debt to the state telco. The conflict emerged as a significant political issue in ETB's home city Bogotá last year, with council members calling for a mass switch-off of Claro's handsets in protest.

The then mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, even said that he would order the seizure of Claro's assets if the company failed to repay its debt to ETB, and a court imposed a 300bn-peso precautionary measure on Claro in order to guarantee that the company pays its debt.

Meanwhile, Claro accused ETB of generating undue media pressure related to the conflict, and filed a legal complaint against the organizers of the handset switch-off protest, claiming that the actions amounted to an assault against the company's economic assets.

"They have made a load of appeals and I really don't know where they get them from, but they've lost all of them. They must pay," ETB president Saúl Kattan said.

However, it remains to be seen exactly if and when such a payment will be made by the multinational operator.