October 1 (SeeNews) - Orange Romania, a unit of France Telecom's Internet and mobile arm Orange, said that it has completed the acquisition of a 54% stake in fixed-line operator Telekom Romania Communications (TKR).
The transaction significantly accelerates Orange's strategy of being customers' first choice for convergent services in Romania, the company said in a press release on Thursday.
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While being a subsidiary of Orange Romania, TKR will still operate as an independent company, continuing to provide both support and converged fixed-mobile voice services, broadband internet and television for its approximately 5 million customers. It will also manage the network infrastructure that includes up to 90,000 km of fiber optics and connects around 3 million households.
Also on Thursday, TKR's board of directors appointed Andrei Popovici new CEO. Liudmila Climoc will continue her responsibilities as CEO of Orange Romania, Orange said.
"We start together, Orange and Telekom Romania Communications, with a common goal - to be the first choice on the convergent services market in Romania. We will continue to offer the highest quality standards to our customers and be a reliable partner for business and public administration," Climoc said.
Greek telecom group OTE announced in November that it has agreed to sell its 54% stake in TKR for 268 million euro ($311 million) to Orange Romania. In July 2021, the European Commission (EC) said it has conditionally approved the proposed acquisition of TKR by Orange Romania. The approval was conditional on the divestiture of TKR's 30% minority shareholding in Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC), which is a direct competitor of Orange. As a result, earlier this month, Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) acquired a 30% stake of TRMC from TKR for 58.9 million euro.
($ = 0.8622 euro)
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