Telia to sell Yoigo stake to MasMovil for EUR 479 mln

News Wireless Spain 21 JUN 2016
Telia to sell Yoigo stake to MasMovil for EUR 479 mln

Swedish telecommunications group Telia has agreed to sell its 76.6 percent stake in Spanish mobile operator Yoigo to MasMovil for EUR 479 million. In a statement, Telia said the transaction price is based on an enterprise value of EUR 625 million for 100 percent of Yoigo. "The divestment of Yoigo is an important milestone in our ambition to increase focus on our operations in the Nordics and Baltics," said Telia CEO Johan Dennelind, adding that “I am happy that we have an agreement with MasMovil, which will be able to leverage a small but great and agile team into a combined unit, creating an even stronger challenger in the Spanish market.” The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016 subject to approval from Spanish competition authorities.

Yoigo is currently Spain’s fourth largest mobile operator with around 3.3 million subscribers and a market share of 7 percent. Its 2015 revenues were around SEK 8 billion and the agreed price implies an enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of around 8.1x, said Telia. As part of the deal with MasMovil, the Spanish operator’s minority owners ACS (17.0%), FCC (3.4%) and Abengoa (3.0%) will continue to have an exposure to the combined entity. Telia added that all shareholders will be entitled to a break-up fee of EUR 30 million if the transaction doesn’t complete.

News of the agreement with MasMovil comes after rival bidder Zegona, a UK-based investment group that last year acquired Spain’s Telecable, issued a statement describing MasMovil’s offer as "higher than that which Zegona considers to be fair and reasonable." Although Zegona claimed to have reached an agreement with Telia, it admitted that its bid had been unsuccessful due to the objections of Yoigo's minority shareholders Abengoa, FCC and above all 17 percent shareholder ACS.

According to a statement submitted to Madrid's MAB alternative stock exchange, MasMovil will pay out a total of EUR 612 million for the stakes of all Yoigo’s shareholders as well as the operator’s net debt. The transaction will increase MasMovil’s customer base to around 4.2 million after the company acquired MVNO Pepephone earlier this year for EUR 158 million.

Categories:

Mobile

Companies:

Telecable,  Yoigo,  Masmovil

Countries:

Spain

Tags:

Shareholders & subsidiaries, Wireless, M&A buyouts & divestments

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