Telefonica is allegedly selling its data centres to Asterion Capital for around $669.18m as its latest attempt to reduce its debt.
Spanish online newspaper El
Confidencial reported that the transaction was analysed on Wednesday in a
meeting that Telefónica held at its headquarters in Madrid, according to
sources close to the operation.
Despite this, the company is keeping tight-lipped about the
alleged deal as Data Economy reached
out to Asterion, to which they responded that the company has a ‘no comments’
policy on rumours.
As it stands, the Spanish telecoms operator Telefónica is
sitting on a debt pile of €40.4bn, which they have so far managed to reduce by
around €4bn since 2017 when their debt was recorded as €44.230bn.
Last month, Asterion Industrial Partners announced that it
has secured commitments of €519m for a first close of its inaugural Asterion
Industrial Infra Fund I (“the Fund”) four months after registering the vehicle
with the Spanish Securities Market Exchange Commission (CNMV).
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So far, investors in the Fund include sovereign wealth
funds, pension funds and asset managers from across Europe, North America and
the Middle East.
Following the announcement of the first close, Asterion has
also announced that the Fund has completed its first investment, in a 50/50
partnership with Mirova for a co-controlling stake in Proxiserve, a French
utility group active in energy services.
Just last week it was reported that Telefónica
will be closing the sale of its Chile data centre anytime now.
Telefónica could potentially receive up to $700m from the
sale of its data centre facility, according to sources who have knowledge on
the matter, which will also go towards the reduction of its debt.
Last year, the company hired
financial advisers and was in the process of gauging interest from
potential buyers, including data centre specialist firms as well as
infrastructure and private-equity funds.
The post Telefonica may sell its data centres for $669m in its latest debt reduction bid appeared first on Data Economy.
Source: Data Economy