Telefónica and Amancio Ortega reorganize the Telxius board after the departure of KKR| comp

Telefónica and Pontegadea, the investment vehicle of Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, have restructured the board of directors of Telxius, its infrastructure company, after purchasing the 40% stake that was in the hands of KKR, closed a few days ago, for a value of 216 million euros. This exit changed the company’s capital structure, which was divided into 70% for Telefónica and 30% for Pontegadea.

With the changes, the following have joined the Telxius Board of Directors: Maria Garcia-Lejaz, Director of the Office of the President and Member of the Communications Executive Committee; and Roberto Sibera, CEO of Pontegadea.

Natalia Saenz Stoic and José Manuel Santero left the board, representing Telefónica, as well as representatives for KKR.

Sources from the operator indicate that the dismissals and appointments are due to the departure of the KKR and the formation of the new joint stock. After these changes, the company’s board of directors goes from ten to six members.

In addition, within the framework of the agreements, Pontel Participaciones is established as the sole partner of Telxius.

Telxius, which sold its towers to American Tower in 2021 for approximately 7,700 million euros, owns its main asset which is the operator’s undersea communications cable network. This activity maintains remarkable growth. Consequently, Telxius’ submarine cable business posted strong commercial traction in the third quarter of 2022, with organic revenue growth of 4.9% (18.6% reported).

The company also continues its strategy of attracting new clients. A few days ago, it announced an agreement with América Móvil, the Mexican group controlled by Carlos Slim, to deploy a new high-capacity submarine cable to connect Guatemala and the United States, named Tikal by Telxius and AMX3 by the Mexican operator.