The municipal government of the Colombian capital, Bogota, is planning to sell at least half of its 88.4% stake in local telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB), according to local media reports.
The Colombian newspaper La Republica reported…
The municipal government of the Colombian capital, Bogota, is planning to sell at least half of its 88.4% stake in local telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB), according to local media reports.
The Colombian newspaper La Republica reported yesterday that Bogota’s mayor, Samuel Moreno, had made a speech in which he said that he wants to sell at least 50% of the municipal government’s stake plus one share, giving a new investor operational control.
The proposal, which will be taken to the council of the municipal government, will be discussed starting in May.
Some commentators and minority shareholders reportedly expressed their disagreement with the mayor’s proposal.
La Republica reported that the former mayor, Jaime Castro, said that it did not make sense to sell the stake in the company, which had lost value in recent years.
The remainder of the company is held by private investors.
The company has been looking to attract a partner since 2008, but ended the process in September 2010 after its deadline passed without any bids being offered – despite reported interest from Oi, Telmex, and Telefonica.
The other Bogota-based telco, EPM Bogota, is currently in the process of merging with UNE Telecomunicaciones.
The whole EPM group, which also includes basic utilities like electricity and gas as well as the UNE-EPM telecoms grouping, announced its 2010 results on 15 March.
These results showed EBITDA of US$2.9bn, an increase of 7% on the previous year. Net operating revenues were at US$8.4bn, an increase of 12% from 2009.
