ETB (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota), a Colombian state-owned telecommunication company, plans to issue U.S.$600 million in bonds in international capital markets to fund the expansion of its fiber optic network, according to the local media which cited Bogota’s mayor, Gustavo Petro.
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The bonds will be available no later than November of this year. Petro told Reuters that “the company believes that the world capital market is willing to buy the bonds to provide resources to the country, and we believe that it is going to finance this project without a problem.”
ETB is controlled by the city of Bogotá’s government which owns almost 88.4% of ETB’s shares with the remaining shares listed on the Colombian stock exchange. The company has 2 million fixed lines and is a leading provider of broadband Internet with 34% of connections nationwide.
The expansion plan seeks to bring fiber-optic, high-speed Internet to every home in the Colombian capital city with approximately 8 million inhabitants.
Recently, ETB failed to obtain a strategic partner, a move considered crucial to its viability in Colombia’s highly competitive telecommunications market.
Last April, ETB added mobile voice to its data MVNO offer aiming to reach 1 million subscribers over the next five years out of a total target market of 1.8 million fixed lines. By launching mobile services, ETB expanded its convergent offer, which already included fixed lines and dongles for mobile broadband under an MVNO model.
