2023-10-24 15:08:00
It’s the ” deal which today attracts all the attention of telecoms Europe. Orange has been talking with the European Commission for months in the hope of getting the green light to marry Orange Spain with its rival MasMovil. This operation would make it possible to consolidate a particularly competitive Spanish market, since the number of large operators would fall from four to three in the country.
Orange, number two on the market, and MasMovil, number four, want to join forces to better compete with the historic operator Telefonica. Authorization from Brussels would mean, in the eyes of many operators, that other consolidation movements might be possible in other European countries. This is why the commission’s decision is so eagerly awaited in the industry.
Orange considers the generalization of fiber in France impossible
During the presentation of Orange’s third quarter results this Tuesday, Christel Heydemann reaffirmed her determination to bring this to fruition. deal. “We hope for approval towards the end of the year, and finalization of the operation in the first quarter of 2024”, declared the boss of Orange. The manager once once more indicated that this merger would be particularly value-creating.
“We are very confident in the synergies created by this merger projectshe said. The first of the synergies, and the most important, is that MasMovil is now using our network. And mechanically, this cost of access to the network disappears when the two companies are merged. »
Long negotiations
That said, negotiations with Brussels seem endless. Which pushes some observers to doubt a favorable outcome. Christel Heydemann emphasized that“Obviously, we would all like it to go faster”but insisted on the “complexity” of the operation. In fact, in addition to Orange and MasMovil, this also concerns “remedy takers” – that is to say other operators who must recover, on the occasion of this marriage, certain assets. As The Tribune previously revealed, the commission identified two “remedy takers”: one of them is the Romanian Digi, particularly aggressive in Spain. Christel Heydemann also recalled that Orange “knows very well where his limits are” in terms of remedies, and that the group was not negotiating “not without a red line”.
In Spain, the marriage between Orange and MasMovil suspended due to the sale of assets to the competition
In Brussels, some voices are urging the commission to change its policy towards telecoms. Two weeks ago, Thierry Breton, the French commissioner for the internal market, notably called for ” face the question “ consolidation operations in member countries. Until now, Brussels has made a point of always preserving a high level of competition in each country, so that prices remain low for the consumer. But the difficulties of certain operators, combined with heavy investments in fiber and 5G, might encourage Brussels to revise its strategy. The marriage between Orange and MasMovil will be, under this prism, enlightening.
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