MásMóvil expects mid-term takeover offer; Orange, Vodafone likely bidders - report (translated)
02 MAY 2018
MásMóvil [MAS:SM] Spain’s fourth largest mobile operator with a market capitalisation of EUR 2.386bn, expects a mid-term takeover offer once the current European Commissioner for Competition is replaced, Expansion reported without citing sources.
Margrethe Vestager has set the bar very high for authorising mergers to reduce the number of operators within the same country from four to three, the paper noted. But Vestager’s mandate expires at the end of 2019 and MásMóvil shareholders are willing to wait a little longer to see if the new Competition Manager is more flexible.
The Spanish-language paper identifies Orange [EPA: ORA] and Vodafone [LON: VOD] as MásMóvil most likely bidders for economic reasons: the two companies already operate in Spain and stand to obtain more advantages and synergies. For Vodafone and Orange, MásMóvil is worth more than any other mobile operator, which means they will be willing to pay more than anyone else.
MásMóvil closed 2017 with earnings of EUR 1.3bn, up 16% YoY, after adding 382,000 fixed telephone clients and 564,000 mobile telephone clients, the report noted.