Plans for Tele2 to sell its Spanish operations

August 7, 2015

It is rumoured that Tele2 could be planning to sell its operations in Spain. The Swedish telecommunications operator is considering plans to dispose of its Spanish network assets acquired two years ago. The decision to sell is thought to be due to the competitive environment, and to avoid having to make further heavy investments in the market in new ADSL networks.

Tele2 has disposed of various assets across Europe during 2015. The company has announced the sale of operations in Denmark, Hungary and Portugal, and finalised a deal to divest part of its French unit.

However, the assets could bring significant benefits to a number of telecoms companies and there is speculation that Vodafone in the UK and the Spanish broadband provider Jazztel are both interested in the acquisition of Tele2 Spain.

Buying Tele2 Spain, which includes the network assets of Spanish altnet Comunitel, would enable Vodafone to offer ADSL services and establish itself as a converged operator in Spain, as Orange has done with its acquisition of Ya.com in June 2015.

Jazztel has ambitions to become a wholesale provider, which would be facilitated by the acquisition of Tele2. In addition to counting Comunitel’s network among its assets, Tele2 is also involved in a local loop unbundling project which aims to unbundle 457 exchanges by the end of the year.

There is also the possibility of other bidders coming forward, and negotiations could take some months to complete.