Telefónica SA is considering granting a vendor loan to the buyer of its Mexican unit to help complete a deal that was announced in April, according to people familiar with the matter.

Telefónica is weighing the option as part of broader discussions with Melisa Acquisition on how to structure the $450 million deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Melisa is the consortium led by Oxio Inc. and Newfoundland Capital Management that agreed to buy Telefónica Mexico.

The size of the potential loan isn’t clear. A spokesperson for Telefónica declined to comment. Spokespeople for Oxio and Newfoundland didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Telefónica, formerly one of the biggest telecommunications players in Latin America, has steadily reduced its presence in the Spanish-speaking parts of the region as it refocuses on its core markets of Europe and Brazil under Executive Chairman Marc Murtra. It still owns units in Mexico and Venezuela, which it is also planning to sell.

Mexico’s competition agency approved the sale in late September and gave the parties as much as a year to close the deal.

Telefónica, which has operated in Mexico for more than two and a half decades, struggled to gain traction in the country, where billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil SAB is the dominant carrier. Earlier this week, AT&T Inc agreed to sell its Mexico business to a consortium of Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings for $2 billion, the latest international carrier to exit the market.

A vendor loan would be a rare move for Telefónica, which has sold operations in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and three other Latin American countries in the last two years.