Dos Santos has to raise bid for Portugal Telecom - regulator

LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's securities market regulator, CMVM, said on Wednesday Angolan billionaire businesswoman Isabel dos Santos has to increase the 1.35 euro a share price in her takeover bid for Portugal Telecom SGPS (PT SGPS).

CMVM said in a statement it did not accept arguments presented by Dos Santos' Terra Peregrin company for an exemption from the rule that dictates that the bidding price has to be at least the share's average price over the last six months.

Terra Peregrin, whose bid values PT SGPS at 1.2 billion euros (952.39 million pounds), has argued that July's debt default by Rioforte, a holding company whose debt is held by PT SGPS, had caused PT SGPS shares to plunge since July, making the rule inapplicable.

(Reporting By Andrei Khalip; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)