Telefónica to Sell Irish Unit to Hutchison Whampoa

The Wall Street Journal 25 June 2013
Telefónica SA agreed to sell its Irish business to a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. for up to €850 million ($1.1 billion) as the Spanish company continued shedding assets.
For the Hong Kong conglomerate, the deal marked its second European acquisition in a week.
Telefónica has been unloading operations for more than a year to pare debt. While the Irish deal is relatively small, it signals that the Madrid-based company remains focused on such sales even as borrowing costs have dropped this year.
The company wants to cut its debt to less than €47 billion this year from about €51 billion today and a peak of €56.3 billion in 2011. Telefónica’s market value of €44.6 billion makes it Europe’s second-largest telecommunications company, after Vodafone Group PLC.
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