September 10 (SeeNews) - Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) said that it has completed the acquisition of a 30% stake of Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC) from fixed-line operator Telekom Romania Communications (TKR) for 58.9 milion euro ($69.7 million).
The acquisition, completed on September 9, was necessary for the regulatory approval of the sale of the 54% stake OTE holds in TKR to Orange Romania, the Greek group said in a regulatory disclosure on Thursday.
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Following the acquisition, OTE controls almost 100% of TKRM, it said.
At the end of July, the European Commission said it approved conditionally the proposed acquisition of TKR by Orange Romania, a unit of France Telecom's Internet and mobile arm Orange.
The approval was conditional on the divestiture of TKR's 30% shareholding in TRMC, which is a direct competitor of Orange, the Commission said at the time.
Orange, through its Romanian subsidiaries, and TKR provide telecommunications services in Romania, both at the retail and the wholesale level. Orange's main activities are related to mobile telecommunications, while TKR is mainly active in fixed telecommunications and TV.
TKR is indirectly controlled by Deutsche Telekom and owns a 30% minority stake in TRMC, one of the four main mobile operators active in Romania.
In November, OTE announced that it has agreed to sell its 54% stake in Telekom Romania Communications for 268 million euro to Orange Romania.
($ = 0.8452 euro)
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