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Bloomberg reports Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) has hired Goldman and SocGen to find a buyer for Telefonica Czech Republic, in which it owns a 69% stake (currently valued at $3.6B). Shares of the Czech subsidiary are up 4.4% on European exchanges.
- Telefonica has been rumored to be weighing a sale of the business for a while, as the European/Latin American carrier pushes works to lower its net debt (still €49.8B at the end of Q2). Like many other European carriers, the Telefonica Czech Republic has been seeing declining revenue (-7.8% Y/Y in Q2) thanks to nosediving voice/text-messaging activity.
- Telefonica unloaded its Irish unit for €850M earlier this year, but also recently struck a deal to raise its Telecom Italia stake.