Orange/MasMovil pick Digi to buy assets being sold to address EU concerns - sources

Digi Communications

24/10/2023 16:45

(Adds the European Commission and MasMovil decline to comment,
no immediate comment from Orange, details)
    By Foo Yun Chee
       BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - French telecoms group
Orange  ORAN.PA  and Spanish peer MasMovil have picked Romania's
Digi  DIGI.BX  to buy assets they plan to divest to address EU
antitrust concerns over their Spanish tie-up, two people with
direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.
    The deal is seen as an important test case of whether EU
antitrust regulators will relax their tough approach towards
mergers that shrink the number of mobile players in a country
from four to three. Regulators worry that this may reduce
competition.
    Orange and MasMovil, the second and fourth largest telecoms
providers in Spain, announced the deal which has an enterprise
value of 18.6 billion euros ($19.7 billion) in July 2022.
    The European Commission in June warned the companies that
the deal, which will reduce the number of mobile players in
Spain from four to three, may reduce competition and push up
prices in Spain.
    The EU competition enforcer, which halted its investigation
into the deal in July while waiting for the companies to provide
requested information, and MasMovil declined to comment on
Tuesday.
    Orange did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
    Orange and MasMovil plan to divest spectrum, a customers
unit and a brand as well as offer Digi access to infrastructure,
the people said.
    Orange and MasMovil, which compete with Telefonica  TEF.MC 
and Vodafone  VOD.L  in Spain, had been talking to a number of
potential buyers of the assets including Digi, Avatel and other
smaller rivals in recent months. 
    Digi has expanded rapidly in the Spanish market since it
launched operations there in 2008. It had more than 5.7 million
customers at the end of the first half of 2023.
    ($1 = 0.9440 euros)

 (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((foo.yunchee@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 585 2866; Reuters
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