By Anthony Harrup
MEXICO CITY--Mexican broadcast and media company Grupo Televisa
said Thursday that it completed the sale of its 50% stake in mobile
operator Grupo Iusacell and used part of the money to buy a
regional cable company.
The sale of the Iusacell stake clears the way for U.S. telecom
giant AT&T Inc. to close its acquisition of Iusacell, which
last year it agreed to buy from Mexican businessman Ricardo Salinas
Pliego for $2.5 billion including the assumption of debt.
Televisa earlier agreed to sell its half of Iusacell to Mr.
Salinas for $717 million, and booked a $320 million loss on the
sale.
Televisa said it used part of the money to buy Cablevision Red,
a regional operator with around 650,000 subscriptions to cable TV,
broadband and phone service.
Televisa paid three billion pesos ($204 million) for the cable
company, and will assume around 7.2 billion pesos in debt and other
liabilities.
Cablevision Red--which operates mostly in the states of
Guanajuato, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Tamaulipas and
Colima--is expected to generate sales of two billion pesos this
year, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization, a measure of cash flow, of one billion pesos.
Aside from being Mexico's dominant television broadcaster with
around 70% of the free-to-air market, Televisa is the largest
pay-TV provider through several cable units and satellite
television service Sky Mexico.
Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com
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