Billionaire Carlos Slim (pictured) wants to sell a minority stake in tower company Telesites, Reuters reported, which was spun off from Slim’s America Movil in 2015 in response to regulatory pressure.

Slim and his family members own about 61 per cent of Telesites and he is in talks with private equity firms, sovereign wealth and infrastructure funds about selling some of these shares without giving up control, the report said.

Telesites and Slim declined to comment.

America Movil posted a profit of MXN35.9 billion ($1.9 billion) in Q1 2017, well up on the MXN4.8 billion profit generated in Q1 2016 when earnings were impacted by payments made to Telesites.

Telesites itself is reportedly strugglingto attract tenants to its towers beyond America Movil and its mobile unit Telcel.

In 2015, Telesites was reported to be in talks with AT&T and Telefonica about accessing its towers infrastructure, but earlier this month a research note by investment bank Itau BBA observed AT&T has not increased its demand for Telesites towers.

Analyst Gregorio Tomassi said: “We see little progress in third-party usage of Telesites’ towers.”