Millicom Shows Interest in Buying Telefonica's Chile Unit

(Bloomberg) -- Millicom International Cellular SA has signaled interest in bidding for Telefonica SA’s Chilean unit to start offering its services in the country, according to people familiar with the matter. 

No final decisions have been made and there’s no certainty that Millicom will ultimately make an offer for Telefonica Chile, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. A deal would bring a new competitor to the Chilean market, keeping the total number at four. 

Millicom, which has offered service for decades in Latin America under the Tigo brand, has snapped up Telefonica’s assets in other parts of the region as the Madrid-based company reduces its presence there outside of Brazil. In the past year, Luxembourg-based Millicom has agreed to acquire Telefonica’s Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay units.

Millicom declined to comment. Telefonica had no immediate comment.

Telefonica has been seeking bids for its Chile unit since last year, and had previously attracted interest from competitors Entel SA and America Movil SAB, though they dropped plans for a joint bid. Entel said in December it was studying options to remain in the bidding process, while America Movil said it will seek to go alone. 

Entel hasn’t made any new bids yet, according to one of the people. The scrapped joint bid by America Movil and Entel had been viewed as the leading offer and would have brought consolidation to a market where operators had incurred financial losses, which in one case resulted in a bankruptcy process. Investors had viewed the idea of reducing the number of competitors in the market favorably.

On the other hand, antitrust regulators might be motivated to preserve a competitive field, and a bid from Millicom would keep the number of major carriers steady. Movistar, the brand Telefonica uses for mobile services in Chile, had 22.6% of the market as of September, second only to Entel, according to the latest data from the regulator.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.