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Madrid / AFP
Spain’s heavily indebted Telefonica said on Monday it plans to float a minority stake in infrastructure subsidiary Telxius and was mulling doing the same with its British unit O2.
The Telxius listing is expected by the end of the year with a free float of at least 25 percent, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Telefonica “will remain as a majority shareholder of Telxius immediately after the offering,” the statement said.
Contacted by AFP the company did not provide further details but business daily Expansion reported earlier this year it could raise 1.5-2.5 billion euros ($1.7-2.8 dollars) through the flotation of a 40 percent stake in Telxius.
Telefonica created Telxius as a separate division last year to manage its infrastructure assets which include over 31,000 kilometres (19,000 miles) of fibre-optic submarine cables and 15,000 telecom towers in Spain.
In a separate statement Telefonica said it was “analyzing different alternative statetegies” for O2 “including a possible intial public offer”.
Telefonica has begun the “preparatory work” for a possible listing of O2, the statement added.
If the company decides to list O2, the operation could also be done by the end of the year, Telefonica chairman Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete told reporters late on Sunday, Bloomberg news agency reported.
Telefonica was counting on proceeds from the sale of O2 to CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. to reduce debt, before the European Union in May blocked the deal on competition concerns
The company had a debt pile of 52.57 billion euros at the end of June.
Telefonica reported a net profit of 1.24 billion euros in the first half of 2016, a 42.1 percent drop from the same time last year.