Sweden’s Telia sells stake in Spanish mobile operator Yoigo

Spanish telecoms provider MasMovil said Tuesday it had bought budget mobile operator Yoigo for 612 million euros ($694 million) from its main shareholder, Swedish telecom operator Telia, and three other firms.

“With this acquisition MasMovil combines its assets in fixed-line and broadband with Yoigo’s mobile assets to create a really convergent operator,” the company said in a statement.

MasMovil said the deal would “reinforce and strengthen its position as Spain’s fourth-largest telecommunications operator” behind former Spanish state monopoly Telefonica, Britain’s Vodafone and France’s Orange.

The company in April bought Spanish mobile virtual operator Pepephone for 158 million euros. Virtual operators lease telephone and data transmission services from main operators.

Telia, Sweden’s largest phone carrier, owns 76.6 percent of Yoigo, which has some 3.3 million customers and a market share of 7.0 percent in Spain.

Spanish construction firm ACS has 17 percent of Yoigo, its rival construction firm FCC has 3.4 percent while struggling Spanish engineering and energy company Abengoa holds the remaining 3.0 percent.

Telia will receive 479 million euros for its stake in Yoigo, the Swedish company said in a statement.

“The divestment of Yoigo is an important milestone in our ambition to increase focus on our operations in the Nordics and Baltics,” Telia president Johan Dennelind said in the statement.

The sale of Yoigo is expected to close during the third quarter of 2016, Telia said.

The former Swedish monopoly announced in September 2015 that it wanted to reduce the number of countries where it operates and refocus on its home markets in northern Europe.

Telia earlier this year agreed to sell its Nordic and Baltic debt collection business Sergel Group to Marginalen for 2.07 billion kronor (222 million euros/$251 million).