Business Forum • 31 October, 2024 at 1:19 PM
Vodafone Romania has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as the first step towards acquiring Telekom Romania Mobile Communications, including a significant part of its assets from Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE). Digi Romania will also acquire certain assets.
”This is an important moment for the Romanian telecommunications market – and when completed, this transaction would contribute to it growing even stronger. Since I took over as CEO of Vodafone Romania, I have always stated that the market needs consolidation to ensure the needed investment intensity and innovation for Romania to lead in the 5G era. I am excited about today's announcement, which is another statement that Vodafone is committed to Romania and will continue investing and providing world class services for Romanians,” stated Achilleas Kanaris, CEO of Vodafone Romania.
In a prior agreement, that involved Digi Romania and the businessman Adrian Tomșa, now out of the deal, Digi was supposed to take from Telekom some spectrum frequencies, the tours of radio communication network and pre-paid users. Vodafone did not announce what part of the business it will buy and what will go to Digi Romania.
According to the Memorandum, the parties intend to enter into a series of interrelated operations and transactions under which DIGI will acquire certain assets from TKRM and Vodafone will indirectly acquire OTE's shares in TKRM. Telekom Romania is controlled by the Greek group OTE, which owns more than 99.9% of the shares, while three shares are owned by the National Radiocommunications Company (SNR). The OTE group is in turn 46% owned by the German group Deutsche Telekom.
The closing of the announced transaction is conditioned by a legal process, including the completion of due diligence and prior approvals, therefore there is no certainty at the moment on a final agreement. While following the necessary steps to acquire part of Telekom Romania's assets, Vodafone remains committed to its presence in Romania and has planned investments of more than €200 million this year. Total investments throughout Vodafone's 27 years of presence in Romania amount to more than €6.5 billion.
Vodafone is the largest telecommunications company in Europe and Africa, providing mobile and fixed-line services to over 330 million customers in 15 countries, work with mobile networks in 43 other countries and have one of the largest IoT platforms in the world. In Africa, our fintech platform provides services to over 79 million customers in 7 countries - handling more transactions than any other provider.