The company’s management board announced that it would pursue an IPO along with “selective asset monetisations”, by speeding up the sale of non-core activities.
It is estimated that Telefónica’s German business is worth as much as €10 billion, with its total Latin American division estimated to be worth at least €40 billion.
Telefónica has been struggling under the weight of a net financial debt of €57.1 billion and in November announced its first quarterly loss for nine years.
Falling revenues in Spain and the difficult economic situation in Europe have forced the company to restructure its business and placed greater reliance on the Latin American market for revenue.
Telefónica Germany had a 16.4% mobile subscriber market share in December 2011 and had a 9.6% subscriber market share in the country’s broadband market during the same period.
No decision has been made as to when the listing will take place.
