Telenet in talks with French telco Orange on network access deal (updated)

Orange Belgium NV

03/11/2022 07:46

(Adds details, background)
       PARIS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - 
    Liberty Global's Telenet  TNET.BR  on Thursday said it was
in talks with France's No. 1 telecoms company Orange  ORAN.PA 
over a potential network access to Walloon cable operator VOO, 
which Orange plans to acquire. 
    The companies have reached a memorandum of understanding
which will structure further negotiations, Telenet said in a
statement. Orange was not immediately available for comment. 
    Orange last year announced its plans to buy a majority stake
in the Belgian fixed line business from Nethys in a deal which
then valued the firm at 1.8 billions euros. 
        
    The planned purchase
     - currently under 
    European Union anti-trust review
    , a source has said - would give Orange control over the
cable network in Belgium's French speaking Walloon region and
part of the Brussels area.
  
        The announced acquisition of 75% in VOO dealt a blow to
Orange Belgium's local rival Telenet, which had not been
selected to enter into talks. 
  
 (Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Mathieu Rosemain;
Writing by Tassilo Hummel;
Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
 ((tassilo.hummel@thomsonreuters.com ; Twitter handle:
@tassilo_hummel;))