Telekom announced a few weeks ago to the Romanian Government about the intention of the German group to sell the divisions in Romania to Orange and possibly RCS & RDS, and now we have some statements.
Lucian Bode, the Minister of Transport and Communications, spoke about the opportunity of selling Telekom to any interested entity, of course without actually saying anything about the plans that the company has prepared now.
Telekom does not only have the German group as a shareholder, the Romanian state having 46% of the shares of the fixed division in Romania, it in turn having 30% of the shares of the mobile division, so the Government is involved in both.
Considering that the Romanian State is a shareholder in both divisions of Telekom, the Ministry of Transport and Communications is analyzing at the governmental level a possible sale as the Germans want, analyzing all the possibilities of its realization.
Telekom also granted the Romanian State the right of pre-emption to buy the shares held by the German group, in the event of a sale, but this will certainly not happen.
However, multiple institutions of the Romanian State have analyzed the possibility of selling Telekom, and what this would mean for the national security of the country, or for the competitive environment, and the minister received its result, following which the Government will announce position vis-à-vis the transaction.
"A possible transaction is of strategic interest for Romania. At the moment we are very carefully analyzing what is happening in the market and we are actually working on calibrating our positioning according to the latest developments. Since the first days, I ordered at the level of the Ministry to carry out an analysis of the work scenarios regarding the management of the state's actions at Telekom and the protection of its interests, respectively on the opportunities we have at hand. This analysis has come to me in the meantime, and as I said, we are actually working on calibrating our positioning based on the latest developments.
Telekom wants to get rid of operations in Romania as quickly as possible, but the situation is complicated because it involves both the Romanian state and two separate telecommunications groups, one of which does not want the customers either.
For now, the European Commission has not been notified about the transaction, but it will have to make a decision since we are talking about millions of customers who will switch from one telecommunications operator to another, and this will complicate the process even more.
Telekom did not have a very good relationship with the old government, and with the new one it most likely hopes to carry out its plans much faster, so it remains to be seen what exactly will happen with this sale in Romania.
