Telefónica Colombia and KKR, a global investment firm, will form a joint venture company for the deployment of FTTH in Colombia.
The new company aims to cover 4.3 million Passed Property Units (PDUs), including all the relevant markets in the country over the next three years.
Under the agreement, 60% of the joint venture will be owned by KKR and 40% by Telefónica Colombia. Telefónica will contribute its current FTTH infrastructure, which already reaches 50 cities and municipalities and which -at the end of the first quarter of 2021- covered 1.2 million homes.
The deal values the new company at US$ 0.5 billion (approximately 20 times proforma OIBDA and US$ 410 Enterprise Value per PDU), Telefónica Colombia will receive a payment of US $0.2 billion and will be eligible for a performance-based consideration of up to US $0.1 billion.
Telefónica Movistar Colombia currently has more than 380,000 customers using its fiber service with symmetrical speeds of up to 500 Mbps.
Alfonso Gómez Palacio, CEO of Telefónica Spanish-speaking Latin America, explained that "the agreement with KKR will accelerate the deployment of fiber optic in Colombia at an unprecedented rate, in a market that has shown enormous potential in the last year. In addition, fiber will create opportunities for thousands of homes and businesses that see digitalization as an opportunity for development. This is one more step by our company to lead FTTH services in Latin America".
