América Móvil, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú’s telecom giant, announced Wednesday it has called for an Extraordinary Shareholders’ meeting to propose a spin off of its cell phone tower operations into Telesites, a new independent company. The meeting is set for April 17 in Mexico City.
America Móvil explained that under the spin off plan, shareholders would receive the same number and series of Telesites shares as they currently have in América Móvil when the infrastructure assets are spun off to the newly created company.
América Móvil said that under the plan, 10,800 towers used by its wireless operations in Mexico will be spun off into Telesites, which will give access to the towers to new and existing mobile service providers.
The company explained that at the start, Telcel will be the main tenant (i.e. customer) of Telesites, but with time Telesites will expand its number of tenants, its tower locations and will focus on operating and commercializing its towers and supporting structures.
América Móvil, the largest mobile phone network in the Americas, which operates in 26 countries with 292 million wireless subscribers, said that subject to regulatory approval, Telesites shares would be listed and traded on the Bolsa, Mexico's stock exchange market.
América Móvil's divestiture plan was first announced in July of last year, when Slim's flagship company said it was selling assets to comply with Mexico’s new anti-trust telecom rules that forbids companies from controlling more than 50 % of market share.
Through Telmex, América Móvil currently controls 80% of Mexico’s landline phone market, and through Telcel, 70% of the wireless market. A year ago, the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), Mexico’s autonomous regulatory body, declared Slim’s companies “preponderant” or market dominant.
In a separate development, Mexico's Federal Commission on Economic Competitiveness approved on Tuesday Grupo Financiero Inbursa's request, the bank unit owned by Slim, to purchase Banco Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart's Mexican bank division. The Commission, an independent competitiveness watch-dog, said that the transaction will not have a negative impact in the banking sector since both banks provide the same banking services to customers.
In December, when the deal was first announced, Inbursa said it would pay 3.6 billion pesos, or nearly $247 million for the business. Wal-Mart Bank will give Inbursa access to customers in the 2,755 stores it operates in Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, including a range of discount outlets, supermarkets and hypermarkets.
With a net worth that Forbes estimates at $74.9 billion, Carlos Slim is the world’s second richest person, according to Forbes' real-time billionaire updates.
