Telia has agreed to sell its 76.6% stake in the Spanish operator Yoigo to Masmovil, one of the leading mobile operators in Spain, for an enterprise value of €625 million.
The agreed price, which will see Telia receive €479 million, implies an EV/EBITDA multiple of around 8.1, based on Yoigo’s 2015 results. It should generate Telia a capital gain of over SEK4 billion (€ 0 and after debt adjustments will reduce Telai’s debt by around SEK6 billion.
Yoigo has around 3.3 million subscribers and a market share of 7% in Spain. Its sales in 2015 amounted to around SEK8 billion. As part of the deal, the minority owners ACS (17%), FCC (3.4%) and Abengoa (3%) will remain shareholders. Both they and Telia are entitled to a break-up fee of €30 million if the transaction is not completed.
Masmovil is an integrated telco operator and has been publicly listed in Spain since 2012. It has around 1 million residential subscribers and 26,000 enterprises and is interconnected to more than 150 operators.
Broadband TV News notes that Masmovil has beaten Zegona in securing Yoigo, with the venture capital firm having held two months of exclusive talks in its bid to buy the telco. Zegona’s interests in Spain already include Tolerable.
The deal will result in the creation of the fourth leading network operator in Spain after Movistar, Vodafone and Orange.
Johan Dennelind, Telia company’s president and CEO, said of the deal: “The divestment of Yoigo is an important milestone in our ambition to increase focus on our operations in the Nordics and Baltics. I am happy that we have an agreement with Masmovil, who will be able to leverage a small but great and agile team into a combined unit, creating an even stronger challenger in the Spanish market”.
