Chile’s largest wireless operator Entel has reportedly made a bid for Nextel Peru, owned by US-based NII Holdings.
NII is looking to dispose of the asset and several other companies are interested in bidding for it, according to Chilean newspaper…
Chile’s largest wireless operator Entel has reportedly made a bid for Nextel Peru, owned by US-based NII Holdings.
NII is looking to dispose of the asset and several other companies are interested in bidding for it, according to Chilean newspaper Diario Financiero.
Nextel Peru generated revenue of US$354m in 2011.
Entel already operates in Peru via its Americatel subsidiary, which offers fixed services.
Both Entel and NII Holdings declined to comment.
Such a transaction would provide Entel’s subsidiary “with great possibilities for upselling its services to individual users and improve its service portfolio for corporate/enterprise users and SMEs,” Jose Otero, president of Signals Consulting, commented.
“By purchasing Nextel Peru, Americatel would acquire an already established mobile operator in the market, with a good reputation and an established subscriber base of 1.5 million users”.
Wally Swain, vice-president of research at Yankee Group, agreed, telling TelecomFinance: “Entel, having operated an enterprise-oriented carrier in Peru for years now, would naturally look at adding mobile to the portfolio, especially with Nextel’s enterprise-weighted client base.”
According to Informa analyst Marceli Passoni, Entel has been looking to enhance its regional presence for the last few years, identifying Peru, Colombia and Uruguay as potential markets to expand in.
Nextel Peru’s revenues have been falling in the last two quarters but Passoni says that Entel has the “know how” to improve the operator.
Nextel currently has 5.3% of the Peruvian market, trailing the duopolies of Telefonica, with 51.5%, and AMX with 43.2%, based on Informa’s Q3 figures.
In Chile, Entel has 38.6% market share. The operator is the market leader after surpassing Movistar at the start of 2012.
Entel provides fixed, mobile and internet services.
