THE OPERATION WILL PERMIT A REDUCTION OF GROUP DEBT OF APPROXIMATELY $425 MILLION
Telecom Italia, through its subsidiary TIM International N.V., today signed an agreement for the sale of 100% of the capital of the Venezualan mobile operator Corporaciòn Digitel C.A. (Digitel) to Telvenco S.A., a company owned by Oswaldo Cisneros, for a price of $425 million (enterprise value).
Finalization of the agreement will only take place once the necessary authorizations have been obtained from the relevant Venezualan authorities.
At the consolidated level, the disposal will bring Telecom Italia a reduction of net financial debt of over $425 million.
Digitel is the leading GSM operator in the country. In 2005, it had more than 1.7 million customers, generated revenues of approximately 287 million euro and posted a gross operating margin of approximately 79 million euro. The company is authorized to offer mobile GSM telecommunications services in the central region of Venezuala (Gran Caracas, Miranda, Carabobo, Aragua, Falcón, Yaracuy, Cojedes, Guárico and Vargas).
The disposal of Digitel is part of the Telecom Italia Group’s strategy of rationalizing its portfolio of international holdings and focusing on countries where it is possible to exploit the potential of integrating fixed and mobile platforms, and to operate with a national licence.