Telefonica nixes suggestion of O2 UK going public
Spanish telecoms company Telefonica, the parent company of O2, has poured cold water on speculation that it is preparing to go public in the UK following last year's Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its German business.
According to a spokesman for the company, there are no plans for Telefonica to take the brand public in the UK as it is in a totally different situation to that of its German business when it floated in October.
"We feel no need to IPO the UK business," Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, chief financial officer of Telfonica, said, according to City AM on Thursday. "We do not need to IPO any business, our financial situation is pretty solid."
This isn't the first time that rumours have flared up around O2's potential floatation in the UK, but the firm has always maintained that it is not on the cards, despite its parent company needing to reduce more than €55bn of debt.
To this end, Telefonica Deutschland went public at the end of October 2012, raising €1.45bn.
Telefonica completed its acquisition of O2 in 2006, in a deal worth around £17.7bn.