The buyer is a consortium in which the Clarín Group has a 40% stake.
Telefónica Hispanoamérica announced that it has reached an agreement with Telecom Argentina to sell all of its shares in the capital stock of Telefónica Argentina. "The transaction valued at US$ 1,245 million is part of the Group's strategy to reduce exposure to the region and continue operating in a sustainable manner to build value for its shareholders," the Spanish telco said in a brief statement.
The buyer, Telecom, is a telecommunications company owned by Cablevisión (part of Grupo Clarín with a 40% stake), Fintech (owned by David Martínez, also with 40%) and other investors who bought shares on the open market, which account for 20% of the consortium's share .
Telefónica said the transaction was signed and closed simultaneously today.
The operation, the first of a major scale since Marc Murtra assumed the presidency of the company on January 18, will have to overcome certain competition procedures in Argentina, according to the newspapers El Confidencial and Expansión .
In this context, the agreement to sell Telefónica's subsidiary in Argentina is expected to be made official in the next few hours, before the opening of the stock market in Spain.
It should be noted that Telefónica is at a key moment in relation to its operations in Latin America, as its subsidiary in Peru has recently filed for bankruptcy. In parallel, it continues with its divestment process in the region - called Hispam - where it is evaluating the possibility of selling its businesses in Uruguay, Mexico and Colombia, although the company has not officially confirmed this information.
In the case of Colombia, in the first week of February, Telefónica submitted to the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), the South American country's competition authority, a request for a prior evaluation for the potential sale of Coltel (its subsidiary in Colombia) to the Luxembourg telecom company Millicom, an operation valued at around US$ 400 million.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, the Spanish newspaper Cinco Días reported that the Spanish telecommunications group hired the investment bank JPMorgan to sell its business.
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