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LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Britain's BT has sold its
Spanish fibre networks and data centres to local private equity
group Portobello Capital in the first step to sell some of its
international infrastructure.
Britain's biggest telecoms group indicated last year that it
would start selling off some networks around the world and agree
access deals so it can continue to support thousands of
multi-national businesses through its Global division.
BT said on Monday it had struck a wholesale agreement with
Portobello to maintain access to the network and support the
around 600 major clients it has in Spain.
Assets in the transaction include an optical fibre network,
city fibre networks in Barcelona and Madrid and three data
centres. The sale will enable BT to focus on the provision of
connectivity and digital solutions, it said.
"Today's announcement is another key milestone in the
execution of our strategy to make Global a more agile and
customer-focused business," said Bas Burger, chief executive of
BT Global.
The Spanish unit generated around 230 million pounds ($295
million) of revenue in the 2018/19 financial year.
BT was rocked in 2017 when it discovered an accounting
scandal at its Italian arm that wiped 8 billion pounds ($10
billion) off its market value at the time.
That prompted a re-evaluation of the business and chief
executive, Philip Jansen, said earlier this year he was willing
to make some divestments of infrastructure to create a more
focused and higher margin business.
($1 = 0.7794 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Alistair Smout and Jason
Neely)
