Venezuela took another step towards nationalising key sectors of its economy yesterday, announcing a deal to pay $572 million (£290 million) to Verizon, the US mobile operator, for its 28.5 per cent stake in Cantv, Venezuela’s largest telecoms firm.

New York-based Verizon said that the deal had been satisfactory for both sides, but analysts speculated that the company was merely relieved to be quitting the country without incurring a huge loss. The price of $17.85 per American Depositary Receipt was well below the $21 many analysts thought reasonable.

Mexico’s Telmex had been poised to buy Verizon’s stake in Cantv for an estimated $676 million last year, but the agreement was made void after President Chávez announced the state takeover of the company.

Mr Chávez has accused Cantv of being in league with Venezuelan “coup plotters” and spying on him at the behest of the US Government.

He also says the company was “given away” during its privatisation in the early 1990s.

At the signing ceremony, Venezuela’s Telecommunications Minister, Jesse Chacón, said the deal “begins the process of nationalisation of one of the most strategic companies for the country’s development”.

The Venezuelan Government signed an agreement last week with another US company affected by its nationalisation drive, the Virginia-based AES. Under the deal, Venezuela agreed to pay AES $739 million for its 82 per cent stake in Electricidad de Caracas, the country’s largest power company.

The expropriation of foreign-owned companies has triggered concerns among international investors. Mr Chávez has expressed his admiration for Fidel Castro’s Cuba and has said that he will transform Venezuela, the fifth-largest oil exporter, into a socialist state.

Mr Chávez has vowed to take control of four multi-billion dollar heavy oil projects owned by foreign oil companies including BP, Total, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Conoco-Phillips.

However, unlike Cuba in 1959, Venezuela has compensated foreign companies for their assets, even if not at the full market value. And some analysts said that Verizon’s deal could turn out to be better than it seemed at face value.

The Government did not say whether Verizon would receive its yearly dividend from Cantv, as AES did in last week’s deal for Electricidad de Caracas. If it did, the final sale price could come close to what Verizon would have received from Telmex, said Luis Gustavo Richard, an analyst with local brokerage firm Interacciones.

Given the speed of the deal, Mr Richard said it “had to be pretty good for Verizon, otherwise it could have dragged its feet a little more”. He added: “Verizon obtained sufficient benefits during its operation of the company. Nobody is coming out of this losing.”

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