Spanish telecoms group Telefonica is evaluating offers for its subsidiary, Atento Inversiones & Teleservicios, in a second attempt to sell its majority stake in the local call-centre.
Telefonica, which recently announced broad-ranging debt-reduction…
Spanish telecoms group Telefonica is evaluating offers for its subsidiary, Atento Inversiones & Teleservicios, in a second attempt to sell its majority stake in the local call-centre.
Telefonica, which recently announced broad-ranging debt-reduction plans, has received several proposals from third parties as part of the divestment process and is currently assessing their terms and conditions, it disclosed in a filing to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission.
Spanish newspaper El Confidencial cited sources close to the process as saying the Madrid-based group is prepared to sell its stake for €750m to €850m (US$922m to US$1bn) – significantly less than it had expected to raise from the IPO it cancelled in June last year.
In a regulatory filing at the time, Telefonica cited the “unfavourable states of the market” as its reason for calling off the public listing of 51% of Atento shares. 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), but later reduced the lower end of the price range to €17.25.
In March this year, TelecomFinance reported that Telefonica had hired HSBC and Morgan Stanley to reassess the market appetite for Atento, which it considers a non-core asset.
Last month, Bloomberg cited two unidentified sources as saying Telefonica hoped to receive about €1bn (US$1.2bn) for its stake in the call-centre and may select a buyer by August. US-based private equity firm Bain Capital was among the potential bidders, the report cited two of its three sources as saying.
In late May, Telefonica announced it was preparing to list its German unit, O2 Germany, and was looking at doing the same with some of its businesses in Central and South America in an effort to cut debt and improve liquidity. Telefonica also halved its stake in China Unicom to 5% in early June, thereby netting €1.1bn (US$1.4bn).
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.
