The fastest growing MVNO will add these mobile assets to its expanding fibre footprint
Orange Group and MásMóvil have pre-selected Romanian-based telco RCS&RDS (Digi) to acquire assets they must divest to address EU competition concerns over the proposed €18.6bn merger of their Spanish businesses, according to Reuters.
Orange and MásMóvil plan to divest spectrum, a consumer unit and a brand, as well as offer Digi access to infrastructure, say Reuters. The package has not been finalised yet and some elements could change. Orange has previously said its European masts company TOTEM was not part of the deal with MásMóvil.
Digi, which according to the report has become the EC’s frontrunner, has expanded rapidly in the Spanish market since it launched operations there in 2008. It had more than 5.7m customers at the end of the first half of 2023.
Last month Digi Spain CEO Marius Varzaru told El Mundo [subscription] the telco would invest €2bn in the market if it is allowed access to assets freed up by the proposed merger. In May, Digi Spain signed a deal with infrastructure investor abrdn to build a €300m fibre-to-the-home network in the south of the country.
EC rethink on remedies
The EC told Orange and MásMóvil in June that its preliminary view was that their proposed joint venture risked reducing fixed and mobile retail competition as well as multiservice bundles in Spain. However, in late July the EC effectively stopped the clock in its review to seek additional information – read concessions – from the second and fourth largest operators in the country.
On the latest developments, Orange told Reuters: “It is not up to Orange to validate the potential remedy taker and remedies. This is up to the Commission. We cannot comment on the details or nature of the ongoing discussions.”
El Pais reported that Orange Spain CEO Ludovic Pech said: “We trust to receive approval for the merger with MásMóvil before the end of the year.”
He told media that discussions with the Directorate General of Competition of the EC continue despite the pause, adding that the operator is looking for the best possible solution to obtain approval.
Pech also indicated that the integration would be closed during the first half of 2024, adding that the conditional solutions will not jeopardise the approval of the transaction. Orange reached 2.5 5G mobile customers, after adding 328,000 in the third quarter. The operator said it has sold 2.5m devices since the beginning of the year and that 77% of smartphones it sold were 5G.
Last month, British telecom investment company Zegona confirmed it is in talks with Vodafone about acquiring its Spanish opco.