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Telefónica is known in Germany primarily as the mobile network operator. However, the Spanish telecommunications company also owns submarine cables through its subsidiary Telxius. Telefónica has now commissioned the investment bank Greenhill and the French commercial bank Société Générale to find a buyer for the submarine cable division. According to the Spanish business paper Cinco Días the money will be used to pay off old debts.
Telefónica used its subsidiary Telxius for the first time as early as 2017 to increase its liquid funds. At that time, 40 percent of the company was sold to the US investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and ten percent to Pontegadea. In total, the Shop 1.2 billion to the Telefónica Group.
The submarine cables operated by Telxius are distributed worldwide. This includes the transatlantic submarine cable Marea, the Facebook and Microsoft jointly commissioned in 2017.
Focus on the mobile network
Telefónica also intends to bundle its mobile communications business in the future. To this end, 2,350 mobile telephony sites have already been sold to the subsidiary Telxius for 590 million euros in 2016. In June 2020, Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG, which, among other things, is responsible for the network for the new Aldi Talk packages provides that a further 10,100 mobile phone sites will be transferred to Telxius.
According to Cinco Días the entire business is worth 1.5 billion euros. Currently, 6,000 locations have already been transferred, with the remainder to follow by August 2021. The previously announced conversion of all Telefónica Deutschland (O2) Locations on 4G is not affected by the transaction. To date, Telxius has 26,500 locations in six countries, and by the end of 2021 the consolidation will have brought the total to more than 32,000.
Financial experts also assume that a renewed attempt will follow to bring Telxius to the stock market. This was already planned for 2016, but had to be aborted.
