Liberty Latin America said it has reached an agreement to purchase 87.5% of United Telecommunication Services, a fixed and mobile services provider to several Caribbean nations in an all-cash transaction. The deal values UTS at $189 million on a cash-and debt-free basis.
UTS provides fixed and mobile services to Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Bonaire, St. Barths, St. Eustatius and Saba. The agreement to acquire represents all shares held in UTS by the Government of Curaçao.
“We are excited to welcome UTS to Liberty Latin America,” Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said in a press release. “By consolidating these operations in Curaçao, we will form the largest full-service converged telecom operator on the island and create a true national champion, bringing world-class connectivity solutions to our customers on both fixed and mobile networks. In addition, through this acquisition, we are expanding our footprint in the region, allowing us to further leverage our operational scale and unique sub-sea network.”
UTS provides video, broadband internet, fixed-line telephony and mobile LTE services to residential and business customers, and as of Dec. 31 served 101,000 fixed subscribers and 134,000 mobile subscribers, the majority of which were located in Curaçao.
Liberty Latin America said it intends to finance the acquisition of UTS through existing liquidity, including incremental revolver drawings at C&W. The transaction is expected to be completed in the coming days.
Liberty Latin America was spun off from Liberty Global in January 2018.
