Colombia's govt planning to sell its Coltel shares

Colombia’s government is starting another attempt to sell its 32.5% stake in Coltel, a local subsidiary of Telefónica, in a move to boost the national budget.

The treasury awarded development bank FDN an 18bn-peso (US$4.1mn) contract to analyze and structure the process, according to news outlet Infobae.

FDN will also evaluate the value of the government's shares in Coltel.

The government tried to sell its shares in 2018 and 2020 for US$631mn, but no buyer emerged.

Last year, Millicom and Telefónica announced a non-binding agreement for the potential takeover of Coltel for US$400mn in cash. Under the deal, Millicom would also buy La Nación’s stake and other minority interests in Coltel for cash at the same purchase price per share offered to Telefónica.

Telefónica and Millicom have recently integrated their networks into a jointly owned company.

Market share

Coltel operator Movistar had 1.56mn fixed broadband accesses and 8.57mn mobile broadband lines in June, according to latest figures by the ICT ministry. 

Claro was the fixed and mobile broadband leader with 3.36mn and 26.4mn lines, respectively. 

Millicom’s fixed operator Une accounted for 1.51mn accesses, while its mobile operator Tigo reported 7.99mn.