Zegona in exclusive talks to take control of Yoigo

Zegona Communications, owner of Spanish regional cable operator Telecable, is in exclusive talks with TeliaSonera to acquire that latter’s majority stake in mobile network operator Yoigo.

Zegona and TeliaSonera separately confirmed that they had struck an exclusivity agreement over TeliaSonera’s 76.6% stake in Yoigo. Zegona said it would need to involve other stakeholders and that it had no agreement with them at this stage.

According to Spanish newspaper El País, citing sources close to the negotiations, Zegona’s offer is likely to be in the region of €600 million, substantially less than the €1 billion price tag put on its stake by TeliaSonera previously, when a sale to Orange or Jazztel – now combined in a single company – was mooted.

Yoigo, Spain’s number four mobile operator, has about 3.3 million customers and posted a net profit of €2 million on revenkue of €854 million last year.

Zegona acquired Asturias region cable operator Telecable last year for €640 million.