Telefónica is focusing on the areas of its business that it cares about most: Brazil, the United Kingdom and Germany. The purchase of the German subsidiary KPN, which makes Telefónica a leader in the German telecom market. César Alierta and his company know that they need to maintain a strong credit rating and hope to trim Telefónica's debt to 47 billion euros this year.
That means that in order for Telefónica to keep its word, it needs to divest of 1.6 billion euros, which is going to make it reconsider its future in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, China and possibly Italy. The market seems convinced that markets are gaining strength and that Telefónica's upcoming divestments do not signal problems for the overall healthy company.
