(Reuters) -Spanish telecom giant Telefonica has accelerated plans to reduce its exposure in Spanish-speaking Latin America, where profitability is lower than capital cost, to focus instead on four main markets under new CEO Marc Murtra.
Following both an ownership and a management shake-up in the last year, Telefonica has withdrawn from many countries in southern America, building on a process that began with the sale of some Central America units in 2019.
Telefonica’s market focus will now be on the four core businesses of Brazil, Britain, Germany and Spain, and Murtra plans to introduce a new strategy for the company in the second half of this year.
Below is a list of developments within the Group’s Latin America operations:
MEXICO
Telefonica has hired investment bank JP Morgan to sell its Mexican business, newspaper Cinco Dias reported in February, citing unidentified financial sources.
Asked about the process during an earnings call in February, Murtra said he would not comment on deals until they were signed.
ARGENTINA
Telefonica said it was selling its unit in Argentina to Telecom Argentina for $1.245 billion. In March, Argentina’s presidential office suspended the acquisition on anti-trust concerns.
PERU
Telefonica agreed to sell its Peruvian unit in April to Argentina’s Integra Tec International for about 900,000 euros ($1.04 million). Its Peruvian unit had filed for bankruptcy protection in February.
Telefonica booked 1.7 billion euros in capital losses in the first quarter on the sale of its units in Peru and Argentina.
VENEZUELA
Telefonica has not announced any plans for selling the unit. In February, Jose Luis Rodriguez, the local head of mobile phone unit Movistar said it planned to invest $500 million in the country over two years to expand 4G and 5G services.
COLOMBIA
Telefonica agreed in March to sell its majority stake in the Colombian unit for $400 million to New York-listed Millicom International, which operates telecom companies across Latin America under the brand Tigo.
URUGUAY
Telefonica has agreed to sell its Uruguayan unit for $440 million to Millicom.
ECUADOR
Telefonica has agreed with Millicom to sell its unit in Ecuador for $380 million.
CHILE
Telefonica has hired Citi as an adviser to sell its Chilean business, news website El Confidencial reported on May, citing unidentified market sources. Telefonica declined to comment.
EL SALVADOR
Telefonica sold its mobile phone unit in El Salvador in 2021 to General International Telecom in a deal valued at $144 million.
PANAMA
Telefonica sold its Panama unit in 2019 to Millicom for 536 million euros.
COSTA RICA
Telefonica sold its Costa Rica unit in 2020 to Liberty Latin America, in a $538 million transaction.
NICARAGUA
Telefonica’s mobile telecom assets in Nicaragua were sold to Millicom in 2019 acquired for $437 million.
GUATEMALA
Telefonica sold its operations in Guatemala to rival America Movil for 293 million euros in 2019.
BRAZIL
Telefonica’s Sao Paulo-listed unit Telefonica Brasil is part of its four “core businesses”. The subsidiary carried out several small acquisitions, such as cloud services firms IPNET and IPNET USA, for up to 230 million reais ($41.49 million) last July.
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(Reporting by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; Editing by Inti Landauro and Rachna Uppal)
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