Telefonica investigates bond issue

Following its spin-off from Spanish telecoms group Telefonica last year, Telefonica Deutschland is considering a possible bond issue to finance its debt more cheaply, Reuters reports, citing comments made by the company’s CFO Rachel Empey in the Boersen-Zeitung. The finance chief said that a bond was ‘a possibility that we are investigating’, adding that the company might completely switch to bond financing. In the same interview, chief executive Rene Schuster said that Telefonica Deutschland was sticking to its goal of raising its dividend over the coming years, but declined to be more specific, saying the company had to be flexible. Telefonica, which provides mobile and fixed line services in Germany under the brand O2, is the country’s fourth largest wireless operator by subscribers, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database. The firm had a mobile customer base of 19.3 million at the end of 2012, corresponding to a market share of 17.4%.