Telefonica sells rural fibre stake for 1 bln eur

Spain’s Telefonica said on Monday it is selling a slice of its rural fibre network in Spain to a consortium formed by France’s Credit Agricole and Vauban for around 1 billion euros ($1.02 billion) for a unit which serves about three million homes in smaller villages.

The financial group and the investment firm will acquire a 45% stake of Telefonica’s rural fibre unit Bluevia, valuing the whole unit at 2.5 billion euros, Telefonica said in a statement, adding that it expects the deal to be closed by year-end following regulatory approvals.

Bluevia is a platform to manage and deploy fibre network in underpopulated rural areas of Spain with third-party operators’ networks. Reuters