Telefónica yesterday launched a battle for control of GVT, the Brazilian telecommunications group, trumping by 14 percent an earlier tender offer by Vivendi of France, notes the Financial Times. The Spanish company, the world’s third-largest telecoms group by market capitalisation, said in a regulatory filing that it would offer R48 a share for at least 51 per cent of the target, compared with the R42 offered a month ago by the French group. Vivendi said then it had the support of GVT’s two largest shareholders.