The sale of TeleBermuda International Limited (TBI) is likely to be concluded in the near future, according to TBI president James Fitzgerald.

Mr. Fitzgerald declined to disclose who the purchaser will be, or to comment on whether the purchaser is Bermudian but Minister of Telecommunications Renee Webb said yesterday that the buyer was "not what we might have wished for".

The sale of TBI has been hindered by various factors, including uncertainty surrounding the future ownership of the fibre-optic cable network used by TBI.

Yesterday GlobeNet Communications Group (GlobeNet), the parent company of TBI, removed this uncertainty by announcing that it has sold the fibre-optic cable network for a sum of $48 million.

Ms Webb confirmed that Brazil Telecom S.A. has entered into an agreement to acquire the 22,000 kilometres of state-of-the-art submarine fibre-optic cable which connects Brazil to the US and passes through Venezuela and Bermuda.

She said Government had to be satisfied that the new owner of the cable network was financially viable as both of the Island's long distance providers, TBI and Cable and Wireless, relied on the cable for their communication systems.

Asked what further regulatory approvals were needed, Ms Webb said there were some landing rights issues to be resolved.

Asked about the sale of TBI, Ms Webb said the sale of the cable network represented a first step and details of the TBI deal would be announced over the next couple of weeks.

In June 2000 GlobeNet was bought by a Canadian company, 360Networks, which subsequently went into creditor protection proceedings. The company came out of credit protection in Canada and the United States just over a week ago.

Mr. William B Flynn vice president and general counsel of GlobeNet said that there had been some misconceptions surrounding the impact of the 360Networks insolvency proceedings for TBI and GlobeNet.

He clarified that GlobeNet is not beholden to the creditors of 360Networks because it has an existing secured credit facility with a finance consortium led By Toronto Dominium.

As part of a non judicial work out process, those secured creditors have collaborated with GlobeNet to sell all its non-North American assets, including the GlobeNet cable network and TBI.

Accordingly, the sale of TBI will happen simultaneously with the sale of the cable network to Brazil Telecom and proceeds of both sales will go to the lenders of GlobeNet.