BT Group has announced that it has reached an agreement for the sale of selected domestic operations and infrastructure in 16 countries in Latin America to CIH Telecommunications Americas, an affiliate of CIH Technology Holdings. Assets and operations in the scope of the transaction delivered revenue of GBP110 million (USD127 million) to BT in fiscal year 2018/19. They include two owned fibre networks with a total length of 650km, 2,000km of leased fibre lines, four data centres and five teleports. The divested business is headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
BT and CIH have also entered into wholesale and reseller agreements, under which CIH will act as a regional channel for BT’s products and services and continue to supply domestic connectivity services to BT. BT says it will retain a ‘strong presence’ in the region after the sale, delivering next-generation networking, cloud and security services to multinational customers across 21 countries.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete during this calendar year. BT and CIH have agreed not to disclose the terms of the purchase, which were agreed to in March 2020. TeleGeography notes that industry insiders have previously valued the sprawling LatAm business at around GBP1 billion. The sale represents the latest component in the ongoing break-up of BT’s Global Services unit, as the British company seeks to ‘become a more agile and focused business’.