February 7 (SeeNews) - Deutsche Telekom is considering the sale of its fixed-line and mobile operations in Romania in two separate deals, with France's Orange being one of the possible buyers, according to local media reports.
Deutsche Telekom aims to sell its mobile and fixed-line activities in two separate deals, Romanian M&A portal mirsanu.ro reported on Friday.
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Deutsche Telekom is present in Romania through its 40% shareholding in Greece's OTE. OTE's units in Romania - fixed-line operator RomTelecom and mobile operator Cosmote - were rebranded as Telekom Communications Romania and Telekom Mobile Romania, respectively, in September 2014.
According to unnamed market sources, Orange would be interested in acquiring the fixed-line business of Telekom in Romania, while telecommunications group RCS&RDS will be interested in the mobile portfolio, mirsanu.ro said. The same sources estimated the combined value of a potential transaction involving the two units at 1 billion euro ($1.07 billion).
At the beginning of February, Telekom Romania announced that it is closing its online store, ClickShop.ro, as of February 15. "This action is part of the company's efforts to concentrate on its core business," Telekom Romania said in a press release.
The pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Telekom Romania Mobile, formerly known as Cosmote, fell by an annual 8.2% to 64 million euro in the nine months through September, its parent company, Greece's OTE, said in November.
Fixed-line carrier Telekom Romania Communications, formerly RomTelecom, posted negative EBIT of 46.6 million euro in the first nine months, the report in November showed.
($= 0.9312 euro)