With this new transfer, Telefonica advances its plan to scale back its publicity in Latin America
In sum – what you could know:
Telefonica exits Uruguay – The Spanish telco has agreed to promote 100% of its shares in Movistar Uruguay to Millicom for $440 million, as a part of its broader plan to scale back publicity in Latin America.
Strategic retreat from LatAm – The Uruguay sale follows Telefonica’s latest exits from Colombia, and Peru.
Millicom expands footprint – With operations already in Paraguay and Bolivia, Millicom strengthens its Latin American presence and money stream variety.
Spanish telco Telefonica has reached an settlement to promote all the shares in its Uruguayan subsidiary to the Millicom Group for a complete of $440 million, the previous mentioned in a launch.
With this transaction, which is topic to sure closing situations, together with the approval of the corresponding regulatory authorizations, Telefónica advances its plan to scale back its publicity in Latin America.
Telefónica, which operates below the Movistar model in Uruguay, is the nation’s second-largest cell operator, with almost 29% of the cell market by March 2025.
Movistar Uruguay holds licenses within the 850 MHz bands for 2G and 3G providers, in addition to spectrum within the 700 MHz and 1,900 MHz bands for 4G and 5G connectivity.
In a separate launch, Millicom mentioned that the transaction additional diversifies the corporate’s money stream sources, decreasing general danger supported by Uruguay’s secure macroeconomic surroundings and investment-grade credit standing.
In Latin America, Millicom presently operates in Bolivia and Paraguay below the Tigo model.
Marcelo Benitez, CEO of Millicom, mentioned: “This acquisition represents a key milestone in our purposeful development technique throughout Latin America — particularly in Uruguay, a rustic with robust fundamentals and a forward-looking digital agenda. We’re dedicated to being a long-term companion in Uruguay’s digital improvement by investing in cell infrastructure, enhancing service high quality, and fostering innovation and expertise improvement.”
In March, Telefónica had finalized an settlement to promote 67.5% of its Colombian unit Coltel— which it operates below the Movistar model — to Millicom for about 368 million euros (presently $416 million).
Along with buying Telefónica’s stake, Millicom had additionally introduced a proposal to buy the remaining 32.5% of Coltel, presently owned by the Colombian authorities and different buyers. If profitable, Millicom would achieve full management of the corporate.
In February, Telefonica introduced the sale of its Argentine subsidiary to rival Telecom Argentina for $1.245 billion.
The Argentine authorities initially introduced that it’ll examine the acquisition to find out whether or not it creates a monopoly. The Workplace of the President had launched a press release warning that “70% of telecommunications providers could be managed by a single financial group, making a monopoly shaped due to a long time of state advantages.”
In March, the Argentine authorities introduced a safety measure in search of to droop Telecom’s acquisition of Telefónica. The federal government mentioned that the suspension is predicated on the advice of the Nationwide Fee for the Protection of Competitors, which indicated that “the merger of each firms would considerably improve their market share.”
Final month, Telefonica additionally bought to Integra TecInternational its total stake in Telefónica del Perú.
Telefónica’s chairman, Marc Murtra, believes that the corporate’s exit from Latin America, improves its place to undertake consolidation operations within the telecommunications sector in Europe, the place three of its 4 most important markets are concentrated: Spain, Germany, and the U.Okay.
“The truth of Latin America, the place there are nice groups, (…) should you take a look at the accounts and money stream technology, we consider that the capital in our fingers is getting used extra effectively by focusing on different property. We consider that these actions, though they is probably not intuitive (…), give us even larger capability to consolidate,” the manager mentioned in his latest speech on the VI Worldwide Discussion board organized by Spanish newspaper Expansión.
