Orange Goes 3G Bargain Hunting

date: December 12, 2001 - source: BWCS

As many smaller European 3G operators find it increasingly hard to stay afloat in the face of the ongoing global economic downturn and the mounting costs of rolling out their UMTS networks, Orange is hoping to snap up some New Year bargains. The French mobile group is reported to be looking to take controlling stakes in its Austrian and German affiliates as local partners are forced to offload their investments.

In Austria Orange’s parent company France Telecom currently holds a 17.45% stake in the country’s third largest network Connect Austria. However according to reports in the Austrian press it is interested in acquiring the 50.1% interest held by the electricity utility EON, which in turn is keen to offload its investment. This would give France Telecom overall control of Connect and would enable it to rebrand the network under the Orange name. Connects other overseas shareholders, Telenor and Tele Danmark seem unlikely to challenge such a move by France Telecom.

In neighbouring Germany, where it has a 28.5% shareholding in the country’s largest mobile reseller MobilCom, the French telco does not face such an easy ride. France Telecom’s attempts to buy up low cost shares from private investors looking to cash in their MobilCom investments have led to a rift between it and the company’s chairman and founder Gerhard Schmidt. He is reported to be unhappy about France Telecom’s attempt to acquire a controlling interest in the company by what he sees as a back door route rather than exercising its option to buy some or all of his 36% shareholding in 2003. Privately held shares in MobilCom are now thought to have become the subject of a bidding war between the two parties.

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last updated: January 12, 2004

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