imageMADRID: Spanish telecoms group Telefonica has no plans to carry out a large capital increase beyond a 3.4-billion-euro ($4 billion) capital raising announced last year to finance the acquisition of GVT in Brazil, Chief Financial Officer Angel Vila told Reuters.

In a telephone interview, Vila said press reports of an up-to-5-billion-euro capital hike were "totally unfounded".

"What we announced when we did the operation with GVT was that the transaction would be financed with a capital increase of 3.4 billion euros at Telefonica," Vila said.

"Now, after the O2 deal, if anything I would add that that would be the maximum."

Telefonica reached a deal in January with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd to sell its British mobile unit O2 for up to 10.25 billion pounds ($15.4 billion).

The capital increase needed to finance the GVT acquisition is not expected to take place before March, at the earliest, as Brazilian regulatory authorities still have to give final approvals to the acquisition of GVT.

Copyright Reuters, 2015

Comments

Comments are closed.