El Salvador’s antitrust regulator Superintendencia de Competencia has rejected America Movil’s deal to acquire Telefonica’s operations in the country, describing it as “inadmissible” but opening the way for a fresh application. Telefonica reached an agreement to sell its Guatemala and El Salvador assets to the Mexican giant for a total of EUR 570 million back in January. The parties agreed that Telefonica El Salvador had an enterprise value of EUR 277 million and said they expected the deal to close by September.
In a brief statement, the country’s competition watchdog said it informed America Movil of its decision on 29 April and that it would allow the company to file the request again. America Movil subsequently confirmed that it would soon submit new documentation taking into account the regulator’s demands since its request "hasn’t yet been considered under the terms of El Salvador's competition law".
