News
America Movil owner reportedly sounds out private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds about investing in struggling towers operation.
America Movil owner Carlos Slim plans to offload a stake in the Mexico-based telco group’s struggling towers arm Telesites.
Sources cited by Reuters on Friday said the billionaire has contacted private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure funds that may be interested in taking a minority stake in the company.
Carlos Slim and his family currently own 61% of Telesites. According to Reuters, it has a market capitalisation of around 38.5 billion pesos ($2 billion).
The company owns and manages passive infrastructure used mainly by America Movil’s domestic mobile operation, Telcel. It was spun off from Telcel in mid-2015, as America Movil sought to avoid being subject to asymmetric regulation brought in by regulator Ifetel, in a bid to curb its dominance.
Since being spun off, Telesites has struggled to attract other tenants, and the competitive landscape in the Mexican mobile market has altered considerably, thanks to AT&T’s entry via its 2014 acquisition of Iusacell.
