Telefónica S.A.

What it is

Telefónica del Perú S.A.A. — now Integratel Perú — is one of the main telecoms operators in Peru, providing fixed and mobile telephone, broadband internet, and pay-TV services, supervised by regulator OSIPTEL and the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

It sells all these services under the brand Movistar and held leading market positions: as of mid-2024, it held 49.1% of the pay-TV market, 45.9% of fixed telephony connections, and 36.2% of fixed broadband connections.

The company was founded in 1920 and spent three decades as a subsidiary of Spain’s Telefónica group before being sold and rebranded in 2025. Its fixed business has been under pressure because, while it reached leadership in fibre-to-the-home connections, its older cable-coaxial customer base continued shrinking rapidly.

Who owns it

Telefónica del Perú, operating under the Movistar brand, was acquired by Argentine company Integra Tec International Inc. in April 2025; the deal was valued at just S/3.7 million (US$4 mn) (around $1 million). Before that, the company was a subsidiary of Telefónica Hispanoamérica S.A. — the Spanish Telefónica group’s Latin American arm — which held approximately 99.15% of shares.

As part of the handover, Uruguayan Germán Ranftl was appointed chairman of the board of Integratel Perú to lead the restructuring; Integra Tec’s president, José Luis Manzano, announced plans to invest $200 million to build a new commercial plan.

Who runs it

Ariel Palumbo became CEO of Integratel Perú in July 2025, replacing Elena Maestre; Palumbo had most recently served as CEO of Edemsa, an Argentine electricity distributor in which Integra Capital — the group that acquired the Peruvian business — holds a stake. Federico Zin was appointed Executive Vice President, reporting directly to the board chairman; he brings experience in finance and debt restructuring, previously serving as a director at Edenor, Argentina’s largest electricity distributor.

Juan Pons joined as Chief Operating Officer, bringing experience in business growth and transformation across international markets.

The money, in plain words

The numbers are grim. The company posted a net loss of S/3.39 billion (US$3.4 bn) (≈ $912M) for the full year ended 31 December 2024 — more than half its estimated annual revenue, a net margin of around –57% (our calculation).

At year-end, short-term debts exceeded short-term assets by S/3.38 billion (US$3.4 bn) (≈ $909M), driven by intense competition and materialised tax disputes.

The annual loss was amplified by a S/1.22 billion (US$1.2 bn) asset write-down recorded in Q3 2024 and a S/598 million (US$598 mn) write-off of deferred tax assets. Revenue itself has been falling for years — the company reported cumulative revenue of S/4.53 billion (US$4.5 bn) in the first nine months of 2024, down 7.2% year-on-year — reflecting brutal price competition and a structural shift away from copper and cable networks.

The five-year revenue trend shows a slide from S/7.88 billion (US$7.9 bn) in 2019 to S/6.48 billion (US$6.5 bn) in 2023 (our calculation from Fitch/Apoyo data), a decline of about 18% over four years.

What it is doing now

On 19 May 2025, Peru’s competition authority Indecopi formally opened an ordinary insolvency procedure (Procedimiento Concursal Ordinario) for the company, following a petition filed in February 2025; the process aims to restructure the company’s financial obligations through a Global Refinancing Agreement that creditors must approve. In parallel, new owner Integra Tec and the company reached a temporary standstill agreement with bondholders representing at least 60% of outstanding bond obligations, committing not to launch legal actions against one another while restructuring negotiations proceed.

On the commercial side, the company had 934,000 customers connected via fibre optic by September 2024, a 43% increase on the year before — the one bright spot in an otherwise deteriorating picture. Integratel also qualified for Peru’s 5G spectrum allocation mechanism in the 3.5 GHz band, signalling it intends to stay in the market.

What to watch

• Creditor vote: The insolvency process culminates in a creditor vote on a refinancing plan — its outcome will determine whether the company survives in its current form or is liquidated.
• Tax litigation: Tax disputes with Peru’s revenue authority SUNAT have been the single biggest driver of losses; their final resolution sets the floor on what the company actually owes.
• Movistar brand: The company still operates under the Movistar name commercially; any licence termination by Spain’s Telefónica would strip it of its most recognisable asset.
• Fibre vs. mobile: Leadership in fibre-to-the-home is the one genuine competitive strength, but the mobile segment is losing post-paid customers to rivals at record rates.
• New owner credibility: Integra Tec’s president pledged $200 million in investment — the market will want to see that capital actually deployed, not just announced.

This is news, not investment advice.