Consolidation will return to the European telco market in a few years as governments seek to cut debt and operators review their portfolio of assets, according to the outgoing CEO of Dutch incumbent KPN.
“[Telcos] will start to rationalize. This will…
Consolidation will return to the European telco market in a few years as governments seek to cut debt and operators review their portfolio of assets, according to the outgoing CEO of Dutch incumbent KPN.
“[Telcos] will start to rationalize. This will cause a certain consolidation, because they will have to start managing their assets lean and mean,” Ad Scheepbouwer told Dow Jones in an interview confirmed by the operator.
Scheepbouwer, who ends his ten-year reign at the helm of KPN today, added that merger talks held before he took charge with Belgian incumbent Belgacom still made sense, but “isn’t a topic right now”.
However, he expressed regret that in 2004 KPN did not acquire UK mobile operator O2, which was sold in 2005 to Spanish incumbent Telefonica for around US$32bn. He said that at the time KPN was not able to manage such a process.
Scheepbouwer has been replaced as CEO by Eelco Blok, who first joined KPN’s Board in 2004, and previously oversaw its international operations.
KPN declined to elaborate on Scheepbouwer’s interview.