Spanish incumbent Telefónica is considering a circa £1bn listing of its call centre subsidiary Atento, according to the Sunday Times.
To maintain call centre functionality after the IPO, the operator is looking at buying Ventura, a subsidiary of UK…
Spanish incumbent Telefónica is considering a circa £1bn listing of its call centre subsidiary Atento, according to the Sunday Times.
To maintain call centre functionality after the IPO, the operator is looking at buying Ventura, a subsidiary of UK retailer Next, for some £50m.
The Spanish operator is reportedly planning to dress Atento up with further acquisitions before attempting a sale. It would then use the funds from this and other non-core activities to finance M&A in emerging markets.
Telefonica has been trying to list a portion of Atento for some time. The company had to call off a planned flotation of a 20% stake in the group in 2008, with the then COO Julio Linares saying that such a move would have to wait until the market improved.
At the time, that stake had been valued at around E300m.
A spokesperson for Telefónica was not available for comment by press time.