Antitrust body probes Telekom Romania Mobile's buy by Tomsa, Digi

The Competition Council will assess the terms of the notified transaction in accordance with current legislation to determine whether it can be granted clearance, the antitrust body said in a press release on Thursday.

Tomsa will take over Telekom Romania Mobile, part of the Deutsche Telekom group, except for several assets which will be acquired by Digi. The assets that Digi intends to acquire comprise the entire radio network, including all towers and equipment, as well as pre-paid client contracts.

Last month, Digi said it had signed an agreement for the purchase of a 99.99% stake in Telekom Romania Mobile from its Greek peer Hellenic Telecommunications Organization. The acquisition would be made through West Network Invest, an investment vehicle majority-owned by Digi and minority-owned by Clever Media, Digi said back then. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The Clever Media group operates primarily in the fields of television programme broadcasting, telecommunications activities through electronic communications networks, the assignment of TV broadcasting rights for sports competitions, the sale of retransmission rights for their own programmes, as well as TV and online advertising.

Digi provides telecommunications services in Romania, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.

In April, Digi said that its Spanish unit had concluded the sale of a Fibre to the Home network to a consortium comprising global financial conglomerate Macquire Capital along with asset managers abrdn and Arjun Infrastructure Partners for up to 750 million euro ($804.4 million).

Digi's shares closed 0.3% lower at 66 lei ($14.22/13.26 euro) on June 20 on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

(1 euro=4.977 lei)