American wireless carrier AT&T may sell some data centers worth about $2 billion.
AT&T has been exploring options to reduce its debt and raise funds for investments, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
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Fitch, a rating agency, says total debt outstanding of AT&T was approximately $82.1 billion at Dec. 31, 2014. Fitch said AT&T’s total net remaining payment is $17.3 billion — net of a $0.9 billion upfront down payment made prior to the start of the auction in November 2014 — with $2.7 billion due February 13 and the final balance due March 2.
AT&T and its main rival Verizon have been selling non-core assets in recent months. Verizon is close to sell its wireless towers and wireline markets worth $10 billion, said a Reuters report.
AT&T’s debt ratio may rise in the near term, the company said last week after spending $18.2 billion to buy 251 licenses during the AWS-3 spectrum auction sale that concluded last week.
American telecom regulator FCC mobilized $44.9 billion through the spectrum auction.
AT&T last month said it would buy bankrupt NII Holdings’s wireless business in Mexico for $1.875 billion.
Earlier, AT&T sold its wireline operations in Connecticut to regional telephone operator Frontier Communications for $2 billion to raise cash for network upgrades.
In 2013, AT&T sold some of its towers to tower operator Crown Castle for $4.85 billion and preserved its right to lease and operate them for about 28 years.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings on Monday said the rating agency will incorporate AT&T’s spending on spectrum under its review of the existing Negative Rating Watch. The company’s ‘F1’ short-term IDR and commercial paper ratings also remain on Negative Watch. Fitch anticipated that the DIRECTV transaction would lead to a one notch downgrade.
Baburajan K
