News
Telefonica has a string of moderately sized businesses in Central America – a market that it is now looking to exit
Spanish telecoms giant, Telefonica, has confirmed that it is in talks to divest its assets in Central America.
Spanish language newspaper El Economista reported early last week that Telefonica was in talks to sell off its assets in El Salvador and Guatemala for around $600 million. Telefonica has since confirmed that it is considering its options regarding its Central American assets in El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
Telefonica has yet to confirm who the potential buyer would be, but speculation in the Latin American press suggests that Mexico’s America Movil could be interested in acquiring some or all of the company’s Central American assets.
Telefonica is currently managing debt levels of around €43 billion ($48.9 billion). It is expected that the funds raised from and Latin American divestments would be used to pay down the company’s debt. However, any sale of assets in the region is expected to raise a comparatively small amount, with analysts predicting that the final sale price could be between $600 million and £1 billion.
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