BellSouth Corp. said it has completed the $1.2 billion sale of its ownership interest in three Latin American wireless operations to Telefonica Moviles, which BellSouth said it would use to help fund its financial obligations for Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s pending $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. BellSouth, which controls 40 percent of Cingular, previously reported its financial obligation to Cingular at $15 billion.
The deal with Telefonica includes operations in Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama and was part of a larger deal announced in March that encompassed BellSouth’s interest in 10 Latin American operations for a total purchase price of $5.85 billion. The sale of the remaining operations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela are expected to close in stages by the end of the year.
BellSouth said the initial closing would result in a gain of approximately $600 million, or 33 cents per share, during the fourth quarter.
SBC Communications Inc., which controls the remaining 60 percent of Cingular, announced earlier this week a $12 billion credit agreement, which the company said it would use to help fund its $21 billion obligation to the acquisition of AWS.
