AT&T said it expects to generate as much as $100 million through a U.S. IPO of its DirecTV Latin America business.
This week, AT&T filed a registration statement for the possible initial public offering of Vrio Corp., the holding company that houses the DirecTV satellite TV operations in South America and the Caribbean. It is widely believed that AT&T is exploring a divesture of the asset, which has been valued at more than $10 billion. AT&T is looking to pay down debt of more than $180 million as it also looks to close on its purchase of Time Warner Inc.
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Vrio operates in eight countries in South America and three in the Caribbean. It’s satellite services are branded under Sky in Brazil, but under DirecTV in Barbados, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.
AT&T reported 13.6 million Latin America subscribers at the end of 2017. AT&T would maintain majority voting control over Vrio after the IPO.
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DirecTV Latin America drove revenue of $5.57 billion in 2017, up 10.9% year over year. Net income was $222 million compared to a net loss of $356 million in 2016.