Telefónica owns a 70% stake in Colombian subsidiary Telefónica Telecom, with the rest of the company held by the state, and it has hired Bank of America and Merrill Lynch for the planned IPO, according to Reuters.
The company is looking to lower its debt to below €47 billion by the end of this year, from €51 billion which it stood at in 2012.
It has been seeking to lower its debt recently, in particular through its non-core assets, but scrapped plans to reduce its stake across its broader Latin America portfolio in February.
According to analysts, its Colombian stake is worth approximately €1.07 billion, so listing a part of the company would only make a fractional difference to overall debt.
