Spanish telecom company Telefonica said late on Friday it had reached an agreement with Luxembourg-based Millicom International to sell 100% of the shares of its Ecuador unit Otecel S.A. for 380 million dollars.
The transaction aimed to further reduce the Spanish company’s exposure to Latin America, after it recently sold its businesses in Uruguay, Peru and Argentina to focus on Spain, Brazil, Britain and Germany.
Telefonica had agreed a month ago to also sell its Uruguayan unit to Millicom, which operates telecom companies all over Latin America under the brand Tigo.
The company had to book an accounting loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) during the last quarter from the disposals in Peru and Argentina.
(Reporting by Ana Cantero)
