PARIS (Reuters) -French telecoms group Orange said on Friday it had reached a non-binding agreement to buy the 50% stake it does not already own in its Spanish unit MasOrange for 4.25 billion euros ($4.96 billion) in cash.
With the acquisition of the stake currently jointly held by U.S. private equity funds KKR, Cinven and Providence, Orange will strengthen its position in an economy that has consistently outpaced others in the euro zone, boosted by a booming tourism sector, a strong labour market, European Union funding and cheaper energy.
Orange intends to sign a binding agreement by the end of the year and complete the transaction in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and agreement on final terms.
MasOrange was created last year from a merger between Orange’s then Spanish unit and smaller rival MasMovil, which was controlled by the three funds. MasOrange surpassed Telefonica as the country’s largest telecom operator in terms of number of clients.
Orange has enough liquidity, including the 4.4 billion euros in cash it received as part of the merger, to acquire the remaining 50% of MasOrange, a spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Orange would maintain its dividend policy.
On October 14, Orange teamed up with rivals Bouygues Telecom and Iliad’s Free to submit a 17 billion euro non-binding offer to buy most of Altice France’s assets, valuing the company at 21 billion euros. The next day, Altice France said it had rejected the bid.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Jerome Terroy; editing by Diane Craft, Kirsten Donovan)
