Argentina's Sion to launch financial trust to speed up fiber investment

Argentina's Sion will launch a private infrastructure financial trust for telecoms development in the capital market to facilitate investments in the networks it shares with Movistar.

An agreement both companies signed in 2021 under which Movistar uses Sion networks to migrate 250,000 homes that were using copper cables, has now been extended to cover localities in the provinces of Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz.

“As part of this commitment, Sion will launch in the capital market the first private infrastructure financial trust for the development of telecommunications characterized by sustainability, a capital market instrument that will allow us to accelerate the investment process in the networks that we share with Movistar,” Sion CEO Luis Quinelli said in a press release.

When consulted by BNamericas, Movistar responded that, due to commercial reasons, the new localities covered under the agreement will only be made public once they have been connected. The number of new locations the companies plan to connect is also not public.

Recently, Movistar announced progress on the network sharing agreement with Iplan that will allow it to expand FTTH in Buenos Aires city, where Movistar has more than 400,000 homes and premises that could contract or migrate to this technology, Telefónica Hispam said in its results report.

Movistar increased its fiber optics connections by 24% annually in the second quarter in Argentina, but did not provide the exact figure in the results report.

Across the region, Movistar has 21.6mn fiber optics customers. In Argentina, the company reported over 1mn last year.