The Luxembourg-based, Swedish-owned group said that it did not have all the regulatory approvals to complete the deals – approvals that were due by last Friday, 1 May.
After that date, “either party may terminate the agreement, and Millicom has exercised its right to do so”, said the company.
Telefónica had said earlier last week that the conditions for the share purchase agreement had been met. Millicom retorted last Wednesday, refuting the Telefónica statement.
It was in February 2019 that Millicom announced agreements for the whole or partial acquisition of Telefónica in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.
The Nicaragua deal was closed quickly, in May 2019, when Millicom bought Telefonia Celular de Nicaragua, merging it with its existing Tigo cable operation in the country. That gave Millicom 4 million mobile customers, with a 4G network accessible to 51% of the population.
Panama was complete a little later, in August 2019, when Millicom bought Telefónica Móviles de Panamá, though its subsidiary, Cable Onda. That added 1.6 million customers to Millicom’s business in the country.
However, the Costa Rica transaction became stuck, for unexplained reasons.
Surrounding this is Telefónica’s desire to move out of Latin America, apart from Brazil. In January 2020 the company said it wanted to spin off of its businesses in Hispanoamérica. It cited changing market conditions as one of the main reasons for the change in it operational model and that the business would now be managed as an autonomous unit with its own dedicated team.
