pounds 900m Spanish telecoms sale

The Spanish government yesterday launched a pounds 900m international offering of part of its stake in telecoms operator Telefonica, of which about pounds 125m is targeted at the London market and about pounds 200m at the US. The sale - of which 43 per cent is reserved for Spanish retail investors - will reduce the Government's stake to 20 per cent. Telefonica also said it was in advanced negotiations with UK companies to add partners to Uniworld, a business telecoms joint venture owned by AT&T and telecom operators in Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

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