Orange Spain assumes that the European Commission will approve its merger project with MásMóvil on February 22, which will allow it to close in March an operation that has been in the making for two years and that is called to transform, together with the purchase of Vodafone Spain by Zegona, the national telecommunications market.
"We trust that the European Commission's decision is positive and will allow us to move forward. It would take a couple of weeks to obtain approval in Spain. It means that we would be at the end of the first quarter of the year with the operation closed and beginning to act accordingly. jointly in the market," said the CEO of Orange Spain, Ludovic Pech, in the presentation of the subsidiary's results.
From that moment on, the two companies "will begin to act together" and pursue the objective of achieving synergies of 450 million euros starting in the fourth year. "It's an industrial challenge," he added.
Orange's objective is to take control of the new company by acquiring 1% of the additional capital and reaching 51%. This eventuality already appears in the merger agreements and Orange can exercise it within a period of between 24 and 42 months from the closing date of the operation. His intention, Pech said, is to do so.
The two big doubts for the future are employment and a future IPO. Regarding the workforce cut, Pech limited himself to saying that "the operation is based on industrial synergies and not on employment issues."
Regarding the IPO, he indicated that "it is an option that could be considered, but it is a decision of the shareholders and depends on that and the market window."
What is certain is that at least in the first stage the current president of the Orange Foundation, Jean Francois Fallacher, will be the president of the merged group, while Meinrad Spenger, on behalf of MásMóvil, will serve as CEO. Pech will be CFO.
The approval from Brussels will validate Orange and MásMóvil's agreement with Digi to reduce their weight in the market, leaving Zegona, at least in this movement, out of the game and focused on the purchase of Vodafone Spain. The Romanian operator will be able to use Orange's mobile network with preferential conditions and purchase some radio frequencies.
Pech announced that there will soon be information about the sale of Orange Bank and that "it will be good news." He also downplayed the carrier's relationship with two Chinese suppliers, Huawei and ZTE, because of security risks. "We don't have any high-risk operators in the core of the operations."
Orange increased revenue by 1.1% in 2023, to 4,689 million euros, thanks in part to the 1.8% increase in turnover from the retail business, which grew for the first time since 2018 and stood at 3,192 millions of euros.
Gross operating profit (ebitda) increased by 12% and stood at 1,246 million euros, which contrasts with what happened in the previous year, when it suffered a decline of 4%. The company is in full implementation of its Back to Growth plan, aimed at returning to growth.
The generation of value per user, known as Arpo, increased by 3.5%. The operator captured 13,000 new fiber subscriptions and 7,000 mobile subscribers in the last quarter, ending the year with 21.6 million customers.
Pech indicated that the group has met its objectives for 2023 and highlighted the company's ability to become the first operator in Spain to commercially launch 5G services, covering 84% of the population.
During last year, the company invested 755 million euros in Spain, equivalent to 16% of its total income.
