José María Álvarez-Pallete will see how one of his priorities is finally fulfilled. Telefónica finalizes the sale of its businesses in several Latin American countries in order to continue advancing in its strategic plan, presented just over a year ago.

But far from being able to jointly dispose of Hispam's assets, as the company itself wished, Telefónica will sell the businesses in one of the regions that gave it the most profits five years ago. Thus, the next 2021 may be the beginning of the end of the teleco in the south of the American continent.

Industry sources confirm to this newspaper that the telecommunications company is going to chop up said divestments to facilitate the acquisition of the assets of each region to other interested companies. Telefónica's intention is to accelerate negotiations and abandon operations in Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador and, above all, in Chile.

In addition, the same voices indicate that the operations that Telefónica plans to leave Latin America will take place before the end of the summer. Industry sources explain that it is complicated (due to the delay generated by the bureaucracy) for sales to occur in the first quarter, so everything indicates that the negotiations will be successful at the end of the third.

Sale by blocks
In this sense, Telefónica works, as previously underlined, to divide its businesses in Latin America into parts. The Spanish company, sources close to the operations assert, is going to transfer Uruguay, Ecuador and Colombia areas to Liberty.

Finally, the company with which it is going to create a joint venture in the United Kingdom has been the one that has shown the most interest in Telefónica's assets in these three countries and will acquire them in mid-2021. It should be noted that Telecom is also studying the composition of the Uruguayan portfolio of the listed Ibex 35, although Liberty leaves with an advantage in the negotiations.

Whoever is the winner of the bid for these three markets, the company that acquires this sales block that Telefónica has dissected is going to win one of the crown jewels of Latin America. Colombia, as the teleco itself explained in its latest results, reached a new historical record for new customers after the "successful launch of the new plans." In addition, the coffee-growing country generated net income of 930 million euros during the first three quarters of 2020 for the group's accounts, just 70 million less than the same period of the previous year, in the midst of a global pandemic. It should be remembered that the Telefónica Group owns 67.5% of Telefónica Colombia.

A business of almost 14,000 million
With operations to close next year, the telecommunications company will continue to fold candles in Latam after it sold its Costa Rica unit to Liberty for 500 million.

In turn, Telefónica was close to selling its portfolio in El Salvador, but the conditions imposed for its authorization caused the operation to be canceled. In addition, the Colombian subsidiary approved the sale of several properties for 70,000 million pesos (almost 17 million euros), according to Cinco Días.

Despite the fact that Álvarez-Pallete's idea is to leave this region, and stay only in Brazil and Mexico, the business in Hispam obtained until the end of the first half of the year revenues of 5,988 million euros, 17% less than a year earlier , 7.4% if currency variations were not taken into account.

In addition, according to the New Street Research report, Telefónica's business in these countries is close to 14,000 million euros, figures similar to those handled by Goldman Sachs (13,200).

Fuente: https://www.elindependiente.com/economia/2020/12/29/telefonica-saldra-de-chile-colombia-ecuador-y-uruguay-antes-del-final-del-verano/