Orange CFO: French Telecom Merger 'Inevitable' But Not This Year
November 16 2018 - 3:20AM
Dow Jones News
By Patrick Costello
BARCELONA--Further consolidation in the French
telecommunications market is in the cards, but there won't be any
steps in that direction in 2018, Orange's chief financial officer
said Thursday.
"Whatever the major players say, they all understand it is
inevitable," Ramon Fernandez said at Morgan Stanley's telecoms
conference in Barcelona. A recent spurt of marketing activity among
French telecoms is probably linked to a belief that the competition
will end up forcing consolidation, he said.
Orange won't be initiating any acquisitions that would result in
three main players from the current four, however, Mr. Fernandez
said, noting Orange is in a good position, from which it can avoid
the kind of complexity involved in a merger.
Orange won't stand in the way of consolidation among other
players, however, since the end result would be positive for the
sector, he said.
Some of Orange's competitors have good reasons to push for
consolidation soon, with a first window of opportunity potentially
arriving in the first half of 2019, Mr. Fernandez said.
He didn't think regulatory hurdles would be too challenging.
"It is obvious that if you go from four players to three it will
still be a competitive market," he said. "This is a decision these
four players have to make."
Write to Patrick Costello at patrick.costello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 16, 2018 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT)
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