MADRID (Reuters) – Telefonica’s sale of shares in its fiber optic network in Peru to private equity fund KKR and Chilean telecoms company Entel, announced in July 2023, did not go ahead, Entel said in a filing with the regulator on Thursday.
Telefónica said it is in discussions with Entel and KKR, in a separate filing with Peru’s stock market regulator.
The deal was announced in July 2023 when Telefonica said it had agreed to sell a 54% stake in its fiber network to KKR and a 10% stake to Entel.
The Chilean company said the deal fell through “due to the violation of certain closing conditions,” which it did not specify.
In recent years, Telefonica has made a series of asset sales to reduce debt and help finance the heavy investments needed to build 5G mobile networks.
Telefónica did not disclose the value of the transaction but said the deal would reduce its debt by 200 million euros ($217.8 million).
The transaction valued 100% of the network at around 550 million euros, including debt, according to a banking source close to the deal.
(Reporting by Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Inti Landauro and Louise Heavens)
