Telefonica began exploring a sale of a minority stake in its Tech division, a move which could net it €500 million to aid debt reduction moves, Cinco Dias reported.

The newspaper stated Telefonica planned to formally start a process offering 49 per cent of its Telefonica Tech subsidiary by the year end, hiring financial services providers KPMG and Morgan Stanley to oversee the move.

Cinco Dias wrote several private equity companies had already expressed an interest, including UK-based Apax Partners. The newspaper added Telefonica Tech was valued at around €1 billion.

The sale would reportedly contribute to debt reduction efforts: in Q1 the figure stood at €35.8 billion.

Telefonica Tech was created in November 2019 to provide cybersecurity, IoT, big data and cloud services to B2B customers.

The unit booked revenue of €166 million in Q1, up 25.1 per cent year-on-year.