C.A. Nacional Teléfonos de Venezuela (CANTV)

What it is

CANTV is Venezuela’s leading provider of integrated telecommunications services — fixed telephony, mobile, broadband internet, and data networks — with an explicit social-inclusion mandate attached to its state ownership. Its products reach both households and businesses, spanning local and international fixed lines, mobile, broadband access, data-network management, and IT consulting.

The company was founded in 1930 as a private firm operating under a government concession. On 21 May 2007, the Venezuelan government bought 79.6% of the shares — on top of the 6.6% it already held — giving it 86.2% control and completing the renationalisation.

CANTV is the parent of Corporación CANTV, a group that also includes mobile operator Telecomunicaciones Movilnet CA, CANTV.NET CA, and directory publisher CA Venezolana de Guías.

Who owns it

The Venezuelan state, acting through the renationalisation decree of May 2007, owns 86.2% of CANTV, held via a state holding vehicle called Corporación Socialista de las Telecomunicaciones y Servicios Postales CA (CORPOSTEL). The remaining roughly 13.8% is the public float — with Class D shares traded on the Bolsa de Valores de Caracas.

In 2022, Venezuela’s securities regulator authorised up to 39,357,042 Class D shares for sale on the local market, and CANTV has run multiple public offering rounds since then to widen its shareholder base.

Since the 2007 renationalisation, CANTV has channelled 100% of its dividends to the national treasury — meaning the government collects both the regulatory fees and the equity pay-out. A presidential announcement about floating 5–10% of public-company shares on Venezuela’s stock exchange has kept retail investor interest alive.

Who runs it

The board ratified on 30 January 2026 named Iván Rafael Hernández Dala as president of CANTV and chairman of the board of directors for the 2025–2026 period. Executive vice-president Stalin Da Silva chairs day-to-day operations and has committed the company to its Strategic Plan 2026–2031, specifically the National Internet Exchange Point (IXP) project aimed at bringing fibre optic connectivity to the entire country.

The previous president, Jesús Gregorio Aldana Quintero, a general of the Military Aviation, had led CANTV since May 2021. CANTV is formally attached to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MPPCT), reflecting its status as a strategic state asset rather than a commercial enterprise run at arm’s length.

A CFO in the conventional sense is not disclosed in available sources.

The money, in plain words

At its shareholders’ assembly on 30 April 2024, CANTV reported operating profit of Bs. 105 million — about US$3 million at the prevailing rate — ending five consecutive years of operating losses.

That turnaround, a 118% recovery versus 2022, came from tariff increases on fixed-line and internet services combined with a tighter grip on costs. Total dividends paid for FY2023 amounted to Bs.

110.97 million, or Bs. 0.14 per share for shareholders of record at 10 May 2024.

Full annual revenue figures are held behind the BVC’s subscriber paywall and were not accessible in available sources; the Dec 2025 audited accounts (prepared by MCR & Asociados) were filed with the BVC on 11 June 2026 and cover the full years 2025 and 2024, but their detailed line items are not publicly readable. What is clear from Q1 2024 interim data: net income in the first quarter of 2024 fell to Bs.

40.7 million versus Bs. 577.2 million in Q1 2023 — a 93% drop driven by the reversal of foreign-exchange gains that inflated 2023 results.

CANTV’s board decreed a dividend for the fiscal year 2024 on 28 April 2025, confirming the company stayed profitable through that year.

At the most recent available share price of Bs. 860 (23 June 2026), the stock’s market value stood at about Bs.

22,570 million — roughly US$36.4 million at the current exchange rate (our calculation: Bs. 22,570 million ÷ 620.658).

The indicated dividend yield is approximately 1.3%.

What it is doing now

CANTV’s flagship project is ABA Ultra, its fibre-optic broadband product: from 250,000 optical connection points the company is targeting 400,000 by end-2024 and 1.7 million by end-2026. It has also signed the IXP Venezuela agreement with other public and private telecoms operators to build shared internet-exchange infrastructure, which should cut the cost and latency of domestic internet traffic by routing it locally rather than abroad.

As of November 2025, CANTV had filed its third-quarter 2025 consolidated financial statements with the BVC, maintaining its recent habit of quarterly disclosure. The share’s market capitalisation rose from US$117 million to US$183 million between April 2023 and April 2024, though subsequent currency and earnings movements have since brought the dollar figure lower.

What to watch

• Full 2024 and 2025 profit figures. The audited Dec 2025 accounts are filed but paywalled; once readable they will show whether CANTV has sustained profitability or slipped back.
• Tariff authority. As a state company whose prices require government approval, any political hesitation on raising rates in line with inflation erodes margins fast.
• ABA Ultra rollout pace. The leap from 400,000 to 1.7 million fibre points by 2026 is ambitious; capex funding and the speed of private-sector partnerships will decide whether it lands on time.
• Further share sales. The government’s stated intention to float 5–10% of public enterprises on the local exchange could expand CANTV’s free float and improve liquidity — or stall with the political cycle.
• Leadership continuity. CANTV has changed its president multiple times in a decade; each transition carries operational risk for a company mid-way through a multi-year modernisation.

This is news, not investment advice.