{"id":17260,"date":"2026-05-05T13:52:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17260\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T13:52:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:52:49","slug":"millicom-adds-telefonica-chile-to-its-latam-stack-access-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17260\/","title":{"rendered":"Millicom adds Telef\u00f3nica Chile to its LatAm stack, Access Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only days after completing the acquisition<\/a> of Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s controlling stake in Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Coltel), Latin America-focused telecom group Millicom, in partnership with major investor Xavier Niel, has agreed to acquire Telef\u00f3nica Chile in a deal that values the operation at $1.215bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move expands Millicom\u2019s regional empire \u2013 it currently has operations in nine LatAm markets<\/a> \u2013 and allows Telef\u00f3nica to say adios to a market it has been seeking to exit for some time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal has a lot of moving parts. Telef\u00f3nica Chile is being acquired by an M&A \u201cvehicle\u201d that is 49% owned by Millicom and 51% owned by NJJ Holding, an investment firm owned by serial telecom sector entrepreneur Xavier Niel who, in turn, is Millicom\u2019s largest single investor (with a stake of more than 40%).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the deal values Telef\u00f3nica Chile at $1.215bn, according to Telef\u00f3nica, a big chunk of that value \u2013 \u20ac479m, or $571m \u2013 is debt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Telef\u00f3nica noted that it will receive just $50m up front and then a \u201cdeferred payment\u201d of $340m. The telco\u2019s note to its investors also states that an additional earn-out payment of $150m might be forthcoming, though that is dependent on \u201ccertain events in the Chilean telecommunications market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the final amount paid, the end result is that Millicom, which operates in Latin America under the Tigo brand \u2013 gets its foot into the market in Chile, where it will compete with Entel, Claro and WOM, and Telef\u00f3nica gets out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Telef\u00f3nica Chile is the third-largest mobile player in the country, with about 5.4 million customers and a market share of about 20%, though the market is very fragmented, with Entel commanding about 35% market share, WOM about 25%, and Claro about 19%. It also boasts a near 40% share of Chile\u2019s fibre broadband access market<\/a>, though that sector only boasts a few million users in total.<\/p>\n

Telef\u00f3nica Chile generated revenues of about \u20ac1.07bn in the first nine months of 2025 and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of \u20ac194m, but those numbers have been shrinking.<\/p>\n

Millicom states in this announcement<\/a> that although it will initially hold a minority stake in Telef\u00f3nica Chile \u2013 it will have the option to acquire NJJ\u2019s stake in the fifth and sixth year after the deal is closed \u2013 it will \u201coperate the business from day one and will apply the Millicom operational playbook to stabilise and strengthen the asset\u201d by \u201cdrawing on its extensive regional experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cAs partners, NJJ and Millicom aim to enhance competitiveness and operational efficiency, capitalise on network modernisation and service innovation, and support sustained investment in network quality and digital services in Chile. The transaction provides a distinctive opportunity to acquire and reposition a challenged asset in one of the region\u2019s largest and most strategic markets at an attractive valuation, while preserving the strength and flexibility of Millicom\u2019s balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Telef\u00f3nica, the exit is in line with its new strategy<\/a> to focus on building scale in its main markets, which are in Europe (Spain, Germany, UK) and Brazil, the only LatAm market in which Telef\u00f3nica intends to have a long-term position.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

– Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only days after completing the acquisition of Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s controlling stake in Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Coltel), Latin America-focused telecom group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[155],"class_list":{"0":"post-17260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-telefonica","8":"tag-telefonica"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}