On October 14, Telecom Argentina reported to Argentina’s securities regulatory agency (Comisión Nacional de Valores) that it had accepted the offer made by its competitor Metrotel for the acquisition of a base of 6 million mobile and 200,000 fixed Internet users. At the same time, Telecom confirmed that the transaction had already been approved by the Competition Defense Agency (the approval had been preannounced by La Nación newspaper in September). The sale of the above-mentioned customer base had been imposed on Telecom by Argentina’s competition regulatory agency as a condition for the approval of the acquisition of Movistar Argentina, Telefónica’s local subsidiary.

According to Telecom’s report, the amount of the transaction is USD 450 million. The next steps will be the execution of the final agreements and the effective transference of the assets. In this way, Metrotel is to become the third mobile operator in Argentina (the first and the second are Telecom’s Personal and América Móvil’s Claro) and adds a fixed Internet home user base.

In addition, the report explains that the transaction includes the customers, the right to use the radioelectric spectrum, the right to use the physical infrastructure, resource sharing agreements and a license to use the Tuenti brand (exclusively in Argentina). As a result, Metrotel will operate its mobile service under the name Tuenti, which had been once launched in Argentina as Telefónica’s second brand for mobile services.

Telecom’s acceptance of Metrotel’s offer adds to the news about the change in Metrotel’s corporate structure, which was released last week. The company, whose owner was Blackstone and Riverwood Capital, is now 51% owned by Nippur Fiber Holding (belonging to Argentine businessmen Luis Blaquier and Sebastián Caputo) and 49% owned by Beacon fund (whose main shareholder is Ralph Booth).