MADRID (Reuters) – Telefonica’s sale of stakes in its fibre optic network in Peru to private equity fund KKR and Chilean telecom firm Entel announced in July 2023 fell through, Entel said in a filing to the regulator on Thursday.
Telefonica said it is maintaining talks with Entel and KKR, in a separate filing to the Peruvian stock market regulator.
The deal was announced in July 2023 when Telefonica said it had agreed to sell a 54% stake in its fibre network to KKR and a 10% stake to Entel.
The Chilean company said the deal fell through “due to the breach of certain closing conditions” it did not specify.
Over the past few years, Telefonica has carried out a series of asset sales to reduce debt and to help fund the hefty investment required to build 5G mobile networks.
Telefonica did not disclose the value of the transaction but said the deal would cut its debt by 200 million euros ($217.8 million).
The transaction valued 100% of the network at about 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)
