The Capital District of Bogota has abandoned plans to sell its 88.4% stake in local telco Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB), the local authority’s finance minister Beatriz Arbelaez has confirmed, bringing an end to the long-running saga. According to local press reports, Jorge Castellanos Rueda, the president of ETB, was informed of the decision on 12 February.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, in December 2018 an administrative court in Colombia’s Cundinamarca department prohibited Bogota from selling the stake – reaffirming an initial decision handed down by the country’s Fourth Administrative Court in July 2017.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, the sale process was scheduled to begin in May 2017, only to be derailed by a court injunction from a workers’ union. The owners sought to raise at least COP2.38 trillion (USD776 million) – equivalent to COP671 per share – to help fund social projects.