NII Holdings, which is based in Reston, Va., announced it has sold its Peru operations to Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (ENTel) for $400 million. The deal furthers NII’s plans to focus its efforts on its core operations in Brazil and Mexico.
The deal was hinted at earlier this week when a Peruvian newspaper reported that NII was looking to unload its operations in the country for as much as $500 million. NII’s management noted earlier this year that it was looking at strategic alternatives for its operations in Peru, Argentina and Chile.
Wells Fargo Securities reported that NII’s Peru operations include a sizeable chunk of wireless spectrum, including 35 megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band, 22 megahertz in the 800 MHz band, 54 megahertz in the 2.5 GHz band and 50 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band. RCR Wireless News recently released a report on the Peru market noting that NII, which operates as Nextel in the market, held just 5.3% market share.
NII noted that it is focusing its 3G network deployment investments in Mexico and Brazil to improve results in those two core markets, having launched 3G services in Mexico in September and quietly launching 3G data plans in Brazil in December.
Analysts noted the Peru deal showed that the carrier’s new management is serious about turning around its fortunes, which have sagged as of late as NII deals with updating its legacy iDEN network with 3G capabilities.
“New CEO Steve Shindler and CFO Juan Figueroa are re-establishing credibility with [Wall Street],” wrote Macquarie Equities Research in a note. “While this process is going to take many quarters and will need to include operational and financial improvements in Mexico and Brazil, today’s announcement was the first bit of good news out of [NII Holdings] in over a year.”
NII’s stock (NIHD) surged more than 12% in early Friday trading.
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