Indebted Spanish incumbent Telefonica has sold all of its treasury stock to investors in a bid to further reduce its debt pile.
The company raised a total of €975m from selling just over 90 million shares – equalling 2% of the telco – at €10.80…
Indebted Spanish incumbent Telefonica has sold all of its treasury stock to investors in a bid to further reduce its debt pile.
The company raised a total of €975m from selling just over 90 million shares – equalling 2% of the telco – at €10.80 apiece.
The price represents a 3.9% discount on yesterday’s closing price of €11.24. The accelerated bookbuild was managed by Goldman Sachs.
Telefonica’s stock was suspended at the start of trading today, opening at €10.83 at 10:00am GMT – down 3.6% from 25 March.
Telefonica has pledged to cut its debt to €47bn this year after reporting a net pile of €51.2bn in its 2012 results, down from €56.3bn the previous year.
The share sale marks the first significant measure the company has taken to reduce its net debt since its Q4 results.
As part of its debt-cutting measures the operator scrapped its dividend last July, refinanced and issued bonds, reduced its stake in China Unicom and sold Hispasat and Atento, as well as floating its German unit. However it chose not to pursue an IPO of its Latin American businesses, shelving the idea for the time being.
