Sale of Telekom to Orange Romania is seriously delayed by a decision that the Romanian state must take, but which must first of all be analyzed "on all sides" by government representatives. I told you a few weeks ago that an interministerial team, in which people from SRI, or SIE, also participated, discussed the sale of Telekom to Orange Romania, and the main topic of discussion was the possibility of the state buying everything.
Telekom is composed of two divisions, one for fixed services, one for mobile services, the Romanian state having 46% of the first's shares, so Orange would buy only 54%, i.e. everything owned by the German group. The fixed services division of Telekom owns 36% of the mobile services division, so Orange would also control what happens there, so that the Romanian state has a very difficult decision to make in the case of the transaction that the operators want to make.
DECISION DELAYING the sale of Telekom to Orange Romania
Orange could have its plans turned upside down if the Romanian state decides to buy the shares of the Deutsche Telekom group in the fixed division of Telekom, but before that, an assessment must be made regarding their value. Here, things are practically delayed a lot, and that's because the evaluation is not done quickly, but over time, and the process makes it even more difficult to take a decision regarding the sale of Telekom to Orange, especially since it must be taken by the new government.
"The Romanian state owns 46% of the landline part of Telekom (Telekom Romania - no). The role of that committee (established by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society - no) was to evaluate the company. I think it is important that the 46% percentage that the state has in the company, even if we are talking about a minority percentage, is very well evaluated. I think it is good, correct and legal like that. I don't want to give ideas and get into commercial matters, because this is not ANCOM's role. These are matters that the people from Telekom have to do, it's not our job."
Telekom and Orange have already announced their plans to the authorities, but the decision needs to be taken by the new minister of communications, but only after an evaluation of the share price for the landline division. No one knows how long this process could take, so Orange and Telekom have a long time to wait until they know if they will initially have the approval of the Romanian state in the plan they have been working on for a very long time.
Orange and Telekom will have a lot to wait even after approval from the European Commission for this sale, so everything could even last up to a year, considering the way things are going now.
