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The acquisition comes six months after OTE first attempted to offload the business to Quantum Projects Group
Romania’s largest operator, Digi Communications, has announced an agreement to take over Telekom Romania Mobile, the local operator owned by Deutsche Telekom’s Greek subsidiary OTE Group.
Telekom Romania is the country’s fourth largest telco after Orange, Vodafone, and Digi, with around 3.9 million subscribers. Formerly owned by the Romanian state, Telekom Romania has been under the majority ownership of OTE since 2009.
A filing to the Bucharest Stock Exchange yesterday confirmed that the ‘main terms and conditions’ of the acquisition by West Network Invest, an investment vehicle majority owned by Digi and minority owned by Romanian media firm Clever Media, have been concluded.
It also confirmed that Telekom Romania Mobile will remain in the market as an independent telecommunications operator, rather than being merged with Digi itself. Whether this will be enough separation to appease the national competition regulator, however, remains to be seen.
“From a competitive point of view, it’s much more complicated because Digi Romania is a big player on the market,” said Bogdan Chirițoiu, president of Romania’s competition council, speaking to HotNews.
“The analysis of this transaction will be a priority operation and we will allocate resources, but it is not a simple case,” he continued.
Chirițoiu also confirmed that the Competition Council would receive an official notification of the deal in the coming weeks, with the authority’s decision coming by the end of the year.
The news comes six months after OTE confirmed that it was in talks with Quantum Projects Group, owner of Clever Media, which was looking to buy 100% of the network operator’s Romanian business. The two companies had signed a Memorandum of Understanding but had not finalised the deal itself.
No financial details have been disclosed. The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval.
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