Lumen Technologies' Stock Rises on the Sale of Latin American Business

Shares of Lumen Technologies Inc. saw a 1.7 percent rise in premarket trading at the beginning of this week on the heels of an announcement of a deal to sell the company’s Latin America business for $2.7 billion to investment firm Stonepeak. The goal of the sale is to boost Lumen’s business services and its more strategic telecom offerings.

The company said the leadership team of the Latin America business will remain in place after the deal, headed by Lumen’s Regional President of Latin America, Hector Alonso, and Lumen will remain a strategic relationship with the new company. Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners is a New York City-based independent investment firm focused on North American infrastructure opportunities.

“This transaction unlocks value for our shareholders while allowing us to maintain our global presence through our strategic relationship with the New LATAM Company,” Lumen’s President and CEO Jeff Storey said in a statement. “This transaction allows Lumen to focus investments in key areas of the business to drive future growth while providing flexibility for our capital allocation strategy.”

Lumen, based in Monroe, Louisiana, is a provider of communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company’s president of global customer success, Laurinda Pang, recently told Fierce Telecom that the sale will allow the company to make expansions in other areas.

“We are investing globally to continue enhancing our assets and capabilities and recently announced network expansions in France, Spain and Switzerland. Lumen’s global value proposition remains unchanged: We will continue to meet our customers’ application and data needs where they operate in the world and our future investments will reflect that commitment,” said Pang.

The relationship between Lumen and the new LATAM company under Stonepeak will include reciprocal reselling and network arrangements in which the company’s will continue to use each other‘s extensive fiber footprints, data centers and other network assets. Upon completion of the sale, customers in the Latin America region will work directly with the new Stonepeak company or through the strategic Lumen partnership, according to the companies.