Latest news with #Murtra
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Factbox-Spain's Telefonica reshapes Latin America strategy after leadership change
(Reuters) -Spanish telecom giant Telefonica has accelerated plans to reduce its exposure in Spanish-speaking Latin America, where profitability is lower than capital cost, to focus instead on four main markets under new CEO Marc Murtra. Following both an ownership and a management shake-up in the last year, Telefonica has withdrawn from many countries in southern America, building on a process that began with the sale of some Central America units in 2019. Telefonica's market focus will now be on the four core businesses of Brazil, Britain, Germany and Spain, and Murtra plans to introduce a new strategy for the company in the second half of this year. Below is a list of developments within the Group's Latin America operations: MEXICO Telefonica has hired investment bank JP Morgan to sell its Mexican business, newspaper Cinco Dias reported in February, citing unidentified financial sources. Asked about the process during an earnings call in February, Murtra said he would not comment on deals until they were signed. ARGENTINA Telefonica said it was selling its unit in Argentina to Telecom Argentina for $1.245 billion. In March, Argentina's presidential office suspended the acquisition on anti-trust concerns. PERU Telefonica agreed to sell its Peruvian unit in April to Argentina's Integra Tec International for about 900,000 euros ($1.04 million). Its Peruvian unit had filed for bankruptcy protection in February. Telefonica booked 1.7 billion euros in capital losses in the first quarter on the sale of its units in Peru and Argentina. VENEZUELA Telefonica has not announced any plans for selling the unit. In February, Jose Luis Rodriguez, the local head of mobile phone unit Movistar said it planned to invest $500 million in the country over two years to expand 4G and 5G services. COLOMBIA Telefonica agreed in March to sell its majority stake in the Colombian unit for $400 million to New York-listed Millicom International, which operates telecom companies across Latin America under the brand Tigo. URUGUAY Telefonica has agreed to sell its Uruguayan unit for $440 million to Millicom. ECUADOR Telefonica has agreed with Millicom to sell its unit in Ecuador for $380 million. CHILE Telefonica has hired Citi as an adviser to sell its Chilean business, news website El Confidencial reported on May, citing unidentified market sources. Telefonica declined to comment. EL SALVADOR Telefonica sold its mobile phone unit in El Salvador in 2021 to General International Telecom in a deal valued at $144 million. PANAMA Telefonica sold its Panama unit in 2019 to Millicom for 536 million euros. COSTA RICA Telefonica sold its Costa Rica unit in 2020 to Liberty Latin America, in a $538 million transaction. NICARAGUA Telefonica's mobile telecom assets in Nicaragua were sold to Millicom in 2019 acquired for $437 million. GUATEMALA Telefonica sold its operations in Guatemala to rival America Movil for 293 million euros in 2019. BRAZIL Telefonica's Sao Paulo-listed unit Telefonica Brasil is part of its four "core businesses". The subsidiary carried out several small acquisitions, such as cloud services firms IPNET and IPNET USA, for up to 230 million reais ($41.49 million) last July. ($1 = 0.8639 euros) ($1 = 5.5437 reais) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spain's $5B Telecom Breakup? Telefonica and Masorange Plot Bold Move on Vodafone
Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) and Masorange have kicked off informal discussions about a potential deal for Vodafone Spain, according to people familiar with the matter. While nothing is on paper yet, insiders say one idea being explored involves splitting up Vodafone Spain's fixed-line and mobile or enterprise operationspossibly to dodge antitrust objections. Masorange could also take over the Lowi brand, Vodafone's low-cost unit. The backdrop? Pressure is mounting in Spain's crowded telecom market, and consolidation is starting to look like the only way out. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 9 Warning Signs with TEF. Masorange, formed in 2024 from the 18.6 billion merger between Masmovil and Orange's local business, is now the country's biggest operator by customer base. Vodafone Spain, meanwhile, was acquired by Zegona for 5 billion last year but has continued to strugglepartly due to an aging fiber-optic network. It's already working with Masorange on a fiber venture, but a broader breakup-and-buyout could redraw Spain's telecom map. Telefonica still dominates business services, but Chairman Marc Murtra has made it clear: Europe's telecom players need to bulk up or risk getting left behind. But even if the strategic logic lines up, execution won't be easy. Telefonica's credit rating is hanging at the edge of investment-grade, leaving little room for risky moves. Murtra has said he won't jeopardize that rating, though some sources say creative funding structures might still be possible. A throwback to the 2020 Brazil playbookwhere Telefonica and two rivals jointly carved up Oi SAcould help navigate regulatory obstacles. For now, there's no formal proposal, but if talks progress, this could become one of the boldest moves in European telecom in years. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Mint
29-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Telefonica Chairman's M&A Ambitions Face Old Debt Challenges
(Bloomberg) -- Telefonica SA's new chairman is running into an old problem. After the better part of a decade focused on cutting debt, the company still doesn't have the cash it needs to chase deals and growth. The Spanish phone carrier is looking for diverse ways to simplify its structure by buying out partners in joint ventures and reorganizing certain operations to make itself more flexible for potential deals in the European telecommunications industry. Executive Chairman Marc Murtra, who took over in January, has ordered a strategic review to be unveiled in the second half of the year. But even after cutting net debt by €23 billion ($26 billion) over nine years, the company is still one of the most leveraged large telecom carriers in Europe and holds the lowest investment-grade credit rating from three major ratings firms — limiting its ability to raise funds. Murtra has said repeatedly that maintaining investment grade is a must. 'The problem is they don't have a lot of flexibility,' said New Street Research analyst James Ratzer. 'The leverage situation is not great.' Telefonica declined to comment. A dividend cut could help free up funds, but the company hasn't signaled that's under consideration. Major shareholders, including the Spanish government and CriteriaCaixa SA, are open to considering a capital increase to pay for acquisitions or cut debt, Bloomberg has reported. Murtra has accelerated long-standing plans to divest most Latin American operations and pledged to focus on Europe and Brazil. He is looking at ways to potentially buy out partners in at least two joint ventures - the VMO2 carrier in the UK and a Brazilian fiber-broadband operator, Bloomberg has reported. By selling Latin American assets, Telefonica can focus more on core operations, which 'could support higher leverage than the previous configuration of the group,' Chief Financial Officer Laura Abasolo said this month. 'More free cash flow coming from other geographies improves credit quality,' she said. Murtra says consolidation would help Telefonica and European rivals gain much needed scale in its existing markets — this means doing deals in the UK, Germany and Spain. Telefonica owns 50% of VMO2 and a hypothetical acquisition of Liberty Global's 50% stake would put its debt ratio at about 4.3 times earnings before interest, taxes, appreciation and depreciation, Ratzer estimates. Since the two partners created VMO2 in 2021, they have struggled to retain market share in both broadband and mobile. 'There's no way the company can live with that type of leverage,' Ratzer said, adding that a rights issue to fund such a deal would be 'very material' at '€18 billion or so' and still wouldn't significantly reshape the UK market. Genuine consolidation would require buying smaller upstart fiber broadband operators. In Germany, Telefonica could potentially try to buy 1&1 AG, but its main shareholder hasn't shown interest in selling in the past. Local operations have struggled with strong competition, especially over the last few quarters. In Spain, potential targets could include Digi Communications NV's local unit and Vodafone Espana, owned by British buyout firm Zegona Communications Plc, although Telefonica said May 21 that there were no negotiations for Vodafone. The business has been struggling to grow profit in the country for years and has long been posting sales growth below inflation. So far, the few signals about Murtra's plans have yet to convince creditors. Several Telefonica bonds led by a 1.715% note due in 2028 traded wider than normal relative to peers in the days after the news of the VMO2 plans. The company's five-year senior credit default swaps widened by the most in more than five years on May 14. 'Many investors seem comfortable with the name, this is also reflected in the solid market capitalization,' said ING's Technology, Media and Telecommunications credit strategist Jan Frederik Slijkerman. 'However, spreads moved strongly wider on the headlines about potential acquisitions. This shows that investors are not really open to the idea of Telefonica taking on more debt.' More stories like this are available on
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spain's Telefonica appoints Emilio Gayo as operations chief
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica has appointed Emilio Gayo as its new chief operating officer, it said on Thursday, in a reshuffle after Marc Murtra took over as executive chairman in mid-January. Gayo, 59, joined Telefonica in 2004 and has run its Spanish business since 2018. He replaces Angel Vila, who had been in the post since July 2017. Vila is set to take on a role as an adviser to Murtra, the company said in a regulatory filing. Vila will also remain on the board of Britain's Virgin-Media O2 and join the board of Germany's Telefonica Deutschland, according to the filing. Gayo will also oversee Hispam, Telefonica's umbrella unit for Latin America that was until now the remit of Chief Financial Officer Laura Abasolo. Telefonica also named Borja Ochoa as the new head of Telefonica Spain and Sofia Collado to spearhead Telefonica Tech. Both executives come from defence and IT company Indra, of which Murtra was CEO between 2021 and 2025. Murtra, whose appointment in January was met with accusations of political meddling by the Spanish government, has ordered a strategic review before the end of this year and called for the sector's consolidation in Europe to gain "strategic autonomy". Sign in to access your portfolio
Reuters
06-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Spain's Telefonica appoints Emilio Gayo as operations chief
MADRID, March 6 (Reuters) - Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica ( opens new tab has appointed Emilio Gayo as its new chief operating officer, it said on Thursday, in a reshuffle after Marc Murtra took over as executive chairman in mid-January. Gayo, 59, joined Telefonica in 2004 and has run its Spanish business since 2018. He replaces Angel Vila, who had been in the post since July 2017. Vila is set to take on a role as an adviser to Murtra, the company said in a regulatory filing. Vila will also remain on the board of Britain's Virgin-Media O2 and join the board of Germany's Telefonica Deutschland, according to the filing. Gayo will also oversee Hispam, Telefonica's umbrella unit for Latin America that was until now the remit of Chief Financial Officer Laura Abasolo. Telefonica also named Borja Ochoa as the new head of Telefonica Spain and Sofia Collado to spearhead Telefonica Tech. Both executives come from defence and IT company Indra ( opens new tab, of which Murtra was CEO between 2021 and 2025. Murtra, whose appointment in January was met with accusations of political meddling by the Spanish government, has ordered a strategic review before the end of this year and called for the sector's consolidation in Europe to gain "strategic autonomy".
