Hard on the heels of its announcement that it intends to sell off its data centre business, Chilean operator Entel is back in the news with plans to sell its fibre optic network – for which expressions of interest have already apparently been received from third parties.
The company has tasked BNP Paribas, a major international banking establishment, with finding a buyer for the fibre network, which has been valued at between US$300 million and US$500 million, according to the Diario Financiero news service.
The data centre business includes data centres in Ciudad de los Valles, Amunategui, Nunoa, Pedro de Valdivia and Longovilo. For this sale Entel is expecting to raise around US$800 million.
Entel has said that it has received offers for the purchase of its data centre network. It is reportedly in negotiations with I Squared Capital, an American private equity firm focusing on global infrastructure investments, and Macquarie Group, a global financial services group headquartered and listed in Australia.
Entel describes itself as a leading technology and telecommunications company with operations in Chile and Peru, markets in which it had more than 18.2 million mobile subscribers and consolidated annual revenues of $2,147,484 million as of December 2020.
In Chile the company offers mobile telephony services and integrated fixed network operations for data, voice, IT/digital, internet and related services for individuals, companies, corporations and wholesalers.
This isn’t the first time Entel has sold off its physical assets. In late 2019 American Tower Corporation bought 3,242 of Entel’s telecom towers in a US$772 million deal.
