Spain’s Telefónica has agreed to sell its call-center business Atento to Bain Capital for about U.S.$ 1.34 billion (€ 1.039 billion). Industry observers say the company wants to raise cash through asset sales because it is struggling under a heavy debt load. The deal value would include a deferred payment of €110 million ($142.7 million) plus a vendor financing of €110 million.
Telefónica expects the deal to be completed before the year-end. Under the agreement, Atento would continue to provide services to the Telefónica Group for at least nine years after the deal.
As Zacks Equity Research pointed out, Telefónica, on June 2012, had a high debt level of € 58.31 billion, up from € 56.3 billion at the end of 2011 and € 55.6 billion at the end of 2010. Raising cash through an asset sale could help Telefonica to retain its investment-grade credit rating from Moody’s, after the recent downgrade by Standard and Poor’s.
Atento has over 152,000 employees in over 15 countries, and posted € 1.8 billion in revenue last year.
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