The CEO of Telefonica Europe, Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, has reportedly said that the company is not looking to dispose of any European operations in order to reduce debt, despite the difficult macroeconomic environment.
According to a Reuters report,…
The CEO of Telefonica Europe, Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, has reportedly said that the company is not looking to dispose of any European operations in order to reduce debt, despite the difficult macroeconomic environment.
According to a Reuters report, Alvarez-Pallete noted speculation in Ireland, but said that the company is not selling. Telefonica provides mobile services in Ireland through the O2 brand.
Telefonica’s CFO Angel Vila said in December that the company was evaluating its operations in order to find non-core assets that could be divested.
Vila reportedly ruled out selling Telefonica’s German or Mexican units, its business in the Czech Republic or its 9.6% stake in China Unicom.
But the company is currently divesting some tower assets. It recently agreed to sell towers in Mexico to American Tower for US$500m and also sold towers in Chile to the same company in January.
Javier Borrachero, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, said that Telefonica has some minor stakes in Portugal Telecom, Portuguese cableco Zon Multimedia, Spanish infrastructure technology company Amper and banking group BBVA that could be disposed.
He explained that the proposed IPO of call centre business Atento could resume “if market sentiment improves”. He added that the China Unicom stake could be sold “if the situation gets worse”.
According to Telefonica’s January-December 2011 results, the company’s net financial debt in 2011 stood at €56.3bn (US$74.5bn).
