Spanish incumbent Telefonica reportedly hopes to sell its call centre unit Atento Inversiones & Teleservicios for about €1bn (US$1.2bn) as part of its broad-ranging debt-reduction plans.
The Madrid-based telecoms group expects to receive binding…
Spanish incumbent Telefonica reportedly hopes to sell its call centre unit Atento Inversiones & Teleservicios for about €1bn (US$1.2bn) as part of its broad-ranging debt-reduction plans.
The Madrid-based telecoms group expects to receive binding bids for Atento by the end of the month and may choose a buyer by August, Bloomberg reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the matter.
US-based private equity firm Bain Capital is among the potential bidders, the report cited two of its three sources as saying.
Late last month, Telefonica announced it was preparing to list its German unit, O2 Germany, and is looking at doing the same with some of its businesses in Central and South America in an effort to cut debt and improve liquidity. In a further attempt to improve its “financial flexibility”, the company declared on 10 June that it had agreed to sell back more than a billion shares in China Unicom to the Hong Kong-listed company for €1.1bn (US$1.4bn).
In late March, TelecomFinance reported that Telefonica had asked HSBC and Morgan Stanley to assess the market appetite for a sale of Atento, which it considers a non-core asset.
The company attempted to list 51% of Atento’s shares last year, but called off the IPO because of poor market conditions.
Originally, Telefonica set the price range for the IPO at €19.25 to €25 per share, which would have valued Atento at about €1.15bn to €1.5bn (US$1.7bn to US$2.2bn). It later reduced the lower end of the price range to €17.25, but was eventually forced to call off the sale.
Telefonica reported a 54% drop in profits for the first quarter to €748m. The company’s total net debt plus financial commitments at the end of March 2012 stood at €59.1bn, equal to a leverage ratio of 2.74x, according to its website.
Telefonica has declined to comment on speculation about a potential sale of Atento.
