Telmex May Buy Verizon LatAm Assets

Mexico’s largest telecoms operator Telmex, owned by local entrepreneur Carlos Slim, may be ready to buy the Latin American assets of US company Verizon, the country’s largest telephone provider. The US operator is looking to sell its assets in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico for an estimated $4 billion. Verizon owns 28.6% of CANTV in Venezuela, 100% of Verizon Dominicana (ex-Codetel) and 52% of Puerto Rico’s Telephone. The purchase of CANTV by Telmex will gain the Mexican operator entry into the last important South American market in which it has yet to have interests. Telmex already has stakes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru and its subsidiaries in these countries provided 25% of the Mexican company’s earnings last year.