Telefonica sells China Unicom stake valued for US$367million

Bloomberg

Telefonica SA, facing roadblocks in the planned sales of its assets following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, is paring a stake in China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. to raise as much as US$367 million.
The sale of 361.8 million shares began today and the stock is being offered at HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 apiece, according to terms of the deal.
The deal has demand for all the stock on offer, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named while the transaction is underway.
Telefonica risks having its credit rating cut if the carrier doesn’t come up with a clear way to reduce debt by year end, Moody’s Corp. analyst Carlos Winzer said last month.
Telefonica shelved plans to sell a stake in its UK wireless carrier O2 amid market volatility following the country’s referendum. The firm also delayed a listing of its Spanish infrastructure unit Telxius, people familiar with the matter had said.
Bank of America Corp is managing the sale of shares in a rare weekend deal. A spokesman for Telefonica declined to comment.
Since the referendum, Telefonica has declined 7.9 percent, underperforming the Stoxx 600 Telecommunications Index of European companies.
Telefonica needs to raise about 14 billion euros (US$15.5 billion) to achieve its target of a ratio for reported net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 2.35, according to Winzer.
In 2009, China Unicom agreed to a US$1Bn cross-holding with Telefónica. In January 2011, the two partners agreed to a further US$500 million tie-up in each other. Following completion in late 2011, Telefónica will hold a 9.7 percent stake in China Unicom, and China Unicom will own 1.4
percent of the Spanish firm.
China Unicom ranked no 1 amongst Chinese companies for minority interest, fixed assets and no. 2 for comprehensive income attributable to minority shareholders,minority interests gain, payroll payable and purchases of fixed assets and others.