Swedish fund EQT has approached Telefonica to offer EUR 1.8 billion for the Spanish group’s global submarine cable business, according to unnamed sources cited by online newspaper El Confidencial. The preliminary offer for the business, which is part of Telefonica’s Telxius infrastructure unit, comes after the Spanish group finalised the sale of its European towers business to American Tower Corporation for EUR 6.2 billion.
Telefonica has been working with banks Societe Generale and Greenhill to find buyers for its undersea cable assets, and is now expected to reach a decision on the sale by the summer, added the report. Telxius is 50 percent owned by Telefonica and 40 percent by KKR, with the remaining 10 percent in the hands of the Pontegadea holding company of Zara founder Amancio Ortega. The unit was integrated into Telefonica Tech in 2019.
Neither EQT or Telefonica commented on the report, which mentions that the potential sale is part of Telefonica’s plan to reduce its debt by monetising assets. The company said divesting its European and Latin American towers to American Tower Corporation would cut its net financial debt by around EUR 4.5 billion and result in a capital gain of around EUR 3.5 billion.
