TeliaSonera has dropped its strongest hint yet that it is looking to offload its Spanish mobile operator Yoigo.
President and CEO Johann Dennelind said that competition was fierce in Spain due to a strong convergence trend and that it was putting…
TeliaSonera has dropped its strongest hint yet that it is looking to offload its Spanish mobile operator Yoigo.
President and CEO Johann Dennelind said that competition was fierce in Spain due to a strong convergence trend and that it was putting pressure on its mobile-only offering.
He described Yoigo as a sub-scale business with 7% market share. “Consequently, we are reviewing our future presence in the Spanish market,” he said.
The executive made the comments in TeliaSonera’s interim report where the operator had to revise its full-year organic net sales outlook for the year, from flat to below what it achieved in 2013.
Dennelind said that in Europe his telco was focused on the Nordic and Baltic markets.
In April the CEO hinted that it may attempt to sell Yoigo again. He described the unit’s small market share in Spain as unsustainable, adding: “Long term I think we need to see Spain as up or out.”
Dennelind’s latest comments come within a month of Orange CEO Stephane Richard saying that Spain is the country where the French incumbent is concentrating its search for acquisition targets.
Orange has previously been linked to both triple-play operator Jazztel and TeliaSonera’s budget mobile operator Yoigo.
Jazztel has a market capitalisation of €2.7bn (US$3.7bn) while TeliaSonera previously conducted a sale process for Yoigo, but no bidder was willing to match its €1bn (US$1.4bn) valuation.
The European Commission’s recent decisions to allow consolidation in Germany and Ireland’s mobile markets, which leaves the countries with three network operators, sets a precedent for Yoigo to be absorbed into one of Spain’s big three operators.
