Spain’s telecoms market generated total revenues of €38 billion during 2011, with fixed telephony revenues dropping by 9.2% to €5.2 billion and mobile telephony services falling by 8.6% to €11 billion. Investment in the Spanish telecoms market also dropped by 2.6% to €4.35 billion.
The results follow a bad financial period for Spanish incumbent Telefónica, which is facing huge pressure to reduce its €57 billion net debt. The company has spent $85 billion on acquisitions since 2000, but in May its board announced that it would pursue an IPO along with “selective asset monetisations”, by speeding up the sale of non-core activities.
The company reached an agreement to sell half of its stake in China Unicom back to the company in June. It is said to be preparing a stock market listing of its German unit, which has an estimated value of €10 billion, and is also considering the sale of some of its assets in Latin America, estimated at €40 billion.
