Móvil Access, telecom service provider, subsidiary of Biper, paging firm owned by Grupo Salinas, made a US$ 10 million offer to keep 100% of the shares of Iusacell, third cellco in Mexico. Verizon and Vodafone, main shareholders in Iusacell, with 39.4% and 34.5%, respectively, agreed on selling positions.

The offer of Móvil Access includes class A and V stock from Grupo Iusacell, and  American Depositary Shares (ADRs). Both types of shares were quoted at US$ 0.0053, and ADRs, at US$ 0.053. The operation is still subject to regulatory approval. The offer is estimated to be effective by mid-July, once the National Banking Commission, and the Stock Commission in Mexico pass it.

According to Verizon, the transaction “gives Iusacell the best opportunity to move forward”, now, with the “experience of a local entrepreneur”. The same press release that announces the sale of Iusacell stock tells Vodafone sold its businesses in India.

Some days ago, Iusacell declared default for US$ 25 million of interests for a US$ 350 million-bond. The cellco total debts amount to US$ 800 million.

In telecoms, Grupo Salinas¿ interests include TV Azteca, second Mexican TV station; Unefon, fourth cellco; Biper and its subsidiary Móvil Access; and the pay-TV firm Telecosmos and the portal and ISP Todito.com, leader in pre-paid card access. The holding led by Ricardo Salinas Pliego also owns Elektra, a retail chain.

As scooped by Convergencialatina a year ago, the operation reinforces Verizon¿s withdrawal from Latin America, in an attempt to ease the holding¿s debt burden. Early this year, the firm sold CTI Móvil Argentina in US$ 20 million to Coinvest, a local investment group, though the operation may actually involve the Mexican América Móvil and its partner in the country, Techint. The Argentine cellco has debts for US$ 1 billion. That is, between Argentina and Mexico, the firm got rid of some US$ 1.8 billion worth of debts.

Now, the US firm only keeps interests in Cantv, incumbent in Venezuela, but cut shareholdings some months ago, so as to reduce “exposure in Latin America” in balance sheets. In the region, Verizon also controls Codetel, incumbent in the Dominican Republic, and PRTC in Puerto Rico.

If the transaction succeeds, Grupo Salinas will be widely supporting cell operations. The holding owns Unefon, that counts on some 1.5 million clients, most of them pre-paid. The cellco addresses low income sectors, that request no value added services. In case of adding Iusacell, it will get a CDMA 1x network in the Federal District, main Mexican market. Iusacell, contrary to Unefon, wants a place among post-paid clients. In this sense, the firm started a clean-up process for its customer portfolio late last year. To March, it had 2 million users, 343,000 of which were contract clients.