Dominant Spanish telco Telefonica is to sell its 13 per cent stake in satellite operator Hispasat to Spanish infrastructure company abertis and satellite operator Eutelsat for €101 million. The deal sees Telefonica garner a capital gain of €47 million.

Abertis paid €68 million for 7.2 per cent of Hispasat, leaving it with 41 per cent of the company. According to a notification to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, the acquisition reinforces abertis’s willingness to grow in the satellite infrastructure sector in those projects in which it can assume an industrial leadership role, while at the same time it demonstrates its capacity to reinvest in attractive projects with upside.

This transaction will consolidate abertis as the main shareholder of Hispasat.

A deal was in place February 2012 for Telefonica to sell its entire stake in Hispasat to abertis for €124 million, but Eutelsat exercised its right of first refusal and the deal changed.

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