Millicom backs out of $570 mln deal for Telefonica's Costa Rica unit
02/05/2020 17:16
MADRID, May 2 (Reuters) - Millicom International Cellular
TIGOsdb.ST said on Saturday it would back out of a $570
million deal to buy Telefonica's Costa Rica business, creating a
headache for the Spanish company as it looks to sharpen its
focus on core markets in Europe and Brazil.
Luxembourg-based Millicom said Telefonica TEF.MC had
failed to secure regulatory approvals needed for the sale to go
ahead by May 1, granting it the right to pull out.
Telefonica said on Wednesday that all the conditions needed
for closing had been met and that it would sue Millicom if it
failed to honour the deal.
Neither company immediately responded to a request for
comment.
The Costa Rica unit formed part of a broader package of
Central American operations, which Telefonica agreed to sell to
Millicom in February 2019 for $1.65 billion. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N20F23W
Telefonica subsequently announced a turnaround plan to bring
in 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) a year in extra revenue by
hiving off more of its Latin American businesses and focusing on
its core markets of Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil and
Germany.
On Friday, Reuters reported that Telefonica was exploring a
merger of its British mobile business O2 with Liberty Global's
Virgin Media cable network. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2CJ2NE
($1 = 0.9105 euros)
(Reporting by Nathan Allen and Ismail Shakil; Editing by James
Drummond)
((Nathan.Allen@thomsonreuters.com;))