Telekom Austria (TA) and Telekom Slovenije have agreed to merge their Macedonian mobile units, Vip Operator and One, into a new joint venture to be controlled by the Austrian incumbent.
The deal should further strengthen TA’s position in the…
Telekom Austria (TA) and Telekom Slovenije have agreed to merge their Macedonian mobile units, Vip Operator and One, into a new joint venture to be controlled by the Austrian incumbent.
The deal should further strengthen TA’s position in the Macedonian market, following its acquisition of cableco Blizoo for an undisclosed sum in June, which has enabled it to offer fixed-line services.
Vienna-listed TA will own 55% of the new JV and have sole operational control, while Telekom Slovenije will own the remaining 45%, the Austrian telco said in a statement today.
The agreement includes put-and-call options for the Slovenian incumbent, which is in the process of being privatised, to exit the JV within three years of the merger’s closing.
The deal is subject to confirmatory due diligence of One, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-November.
The two telcos expect the merger to secure regulatory approval and close in the first quarter of 2015.
Vip and One are Macedonia’s second and third largest mobile network operators respectively, trailing Magyar Telekom-controlled T-Mobile. Hungary-based Magyar Telekom is itself a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
As such, the merger would reduce the number of mobile operators in the country to just two.
Vip had a 28.1% share of the local mobile market at the end of 2013 with about 630,000 customers, while One had a 23.6% market share with about 528,000 customers, according to the Macedonian Agency for Electronic Communications.
Vip posted revenues of €65m and EBITDA of €14.7m for 2013, while One reported revenues and EBITDA of €75.5m and €14.4m respectively.
TA, in which Carlos Slim’s American Movil (AMX) has nearly a 60% stake, claims to have around 23 million customers across eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The Austrian operator is gearing up for a €1bn rights issue which AMX CEO Daniel Hajj has said should help it benefit from investment opportunities in the CEE region. A news agency report earlier this week cited sources close to the situation as saying the rights issue is likely to be launched before the end of the year.
