AT&T Selling Back America Movil Stake To Carlos Slim For $5.6 Bln

(RTTNews) - U.S. Telecommunications giant AT&T, Inc. (T) revealed in a regulatory filing that it has agreed to sell back its stake in Mexican telecom giant America Movil S.A.B. De C.V. (AMX, AMOV) to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim in a deal valued at $5.6 billion. AT&T is fully exiting America Movil stake after more than two decades of partnership between the two companies.

"Upon consummation of the transaction authorized today by the board of directors, AT&T will no longer be a shareholder of America Movil," America Movil said in a separate press release.

The move to divest the stake is part of AT&T's plan to facilitate the regulatory approval in Latin America for its proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of satellite-TV company DirecTV (DTV), agreed upon in mid-May.

The stake being sold represents a 23.8 percent of America Movil's voting shares and 8.27 percent of its equity. The stake sale will provide AT&T with extra cash to fund to purchase of DirecTV.

AT&T is divesting its interest in America Movil, which includes 72.82 million publicly listed L shares and all 5.74 million of its AA shares. The stake is being bought through Slim's holding company Inmobiliaria Carso.

According to the terms of the deal, AT&T will receive a payment of $4.6 billion at the closing of the sale of the shares and the balance $1.0 billion within 60 days following closing.

AT&T said it expects to report a gain of $0.08 to $0.10 per share of AT&T common stock from the sale of the shares, depending on the final income tax impacts.

T closed Friday's regular trading session at $35.41, up $0.15 or 0.43% on a volume of 20.94 million shares, and AMX closed at $20.69, up $1.00 or 5.08% on a volume of 15.98 million shares.