Portugal Telecom, the Portugese national telecoms carrier, has named the investment banks to lead the fifth and final stage of its privatisation, which is expected to hit the markets next month.

The deal will be led by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, with BES Investimento, a Portugese investment bank, handling the retail and domestic institutional side of the deal, in which the Portugese government will sell down all but 500 shares of its stake of just over 10% in the company.