Liberty Latin America (LLA) said it has agreed to acquire America Movil’s Claro operation in Panama for an enterprise value of USD 200 million on a cash and debt-free basis. The acquisition will be funded using cash and incremental borrowings at Cable & Wireless Panama, and is expected to close in the first half of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals. America Movil added that the transaction excludes all the telecommunication towers it indirectly owns in Panama and the Claro trademarks.
In a short statement, LLA said the agreed acquisition fee equates to a mid-single digit acquisition multiple of Claro Panama’s fiscal year 2020 adjusted OIBDA. The operator generated EUR 157 million of revenue in 2020 and had around 760,000 mobile subscribers at the end of June.
The announcement comes just a month after LLA completed its USD 500 million acquisition of Telefonica's wireless operations in Costa Rica. Last year it bought AT&T's assets in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands for USD 1.95 billion, and the company recently set up its group Operations Centre in Panama, a country it sees as an important digital hub for the region.
