Telefonica has reiterated its stance on a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO) for its UK operations, ZDNet UK reports. The Spanish telecom giant’s chief financial officer, Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete has been cited as saying of rumours that Telefonica could take O2 UK public: ‘We feel no need to IPO the UK business … We do not need to IPO any business, our financial situation is pretty solid.’
Rumours regarding a possible IPO have swirled ever since Telefonica completed an offering at its German mobile unit in October 2011, but the CFO’s latest statement echoes one made by O2 UK’s CEO Ronan Dunne in November last year. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, at that date Mr Dunne was cited as saying: ‘I’m very focused on the local market … There is no need to IPO other businesses other than the Latin American business, which [parent company Telefonica] have signalled they’re looking at.’