The Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa is looking to acquire a stake in mobile operator Iusacell for US$1.6bn.
In a statement, Televisa said it would invest US$37.5m in equity and over US$1.5bn in the convertible debt of Iusacell.
After the debt…
The Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Televisa is looking to acquire a stake in mobile operator Iusacell for US$1.6bn.
In a statement, Televisa said it would invest US$37.5m in equity and over US$1.5bn in the convertible debt of Iusacell.
After the debt has been converted, Televisa’s equity stake in Iusacell, which is owned by another Mexican media conglomerate Grupo Salinas, will be 50%.
Televisa said that the investment would be allocated to strengthen Iusacell’s capital structure, finance capital expenditure and provide better services.
Televisa also said it had agreed to make an additional payment of US$400m to Iusacell if the mobile operator’s cumulative EBITDA reaches US$3.472bn any time from now to the end of 2015.
It cited figures from Pyramid Research that the total revenues in the Mexican telecoms market are expected to reach US$35bn by 2015, with two thirds of this figure coming from mobile.
It said: “The participation of Televisa in mobile voice and data is critical to its efforts of expanding its presence in the telecommunications industry.”
It added that the structure of the deal provided it “with an opportunity to build equity on an existing participant in an expanding industry.”
Grupo Salinas and Televisa did not reply to questions before the press deadline.
The reports come a day after Televisa publicly announced that it was holding talks with Iusacell on the possibility of a partnership between the two companies in the mobile market.
Grupo Televisa currently dominates the Mexican television market, with a market share of approximately 75%.
It has been expanding into the telecoms sector through its affiliates, the fixed-line operator Bestel and the triple-play provider Cablevision.
On 31 March, Televisa also announced that it had agreed to acquire a 41.7% stake in the Mexican cable TV operator Cablemas, taking its total stake up to 100%.
The acquisition cost Ps4.7bn (US$398m). Earlier in March, Televisa had also pre-paid Cablemas’ 2015 senior notes and other debt for US$225m.
In its announcement on 31 March, Televisa also said that it had arranged a series of bank loan agreements with Mexican banks. These loan agreements were for Ps8.6bn (US$728bn) and had maturities of between five and ten years.
Televisa would not reveal details about the banks involved.
It said that the money that will not be used for the Cablemas acquisition would go on “general corporate purposes”.
In February, Televisa reported strong financial results for 2010. Its consolidated net income was over Ps8.5bn (US$720m), an increase of 29.4% from the previous year.