Orange and MasMovil’s Spanish deal set for EU antitrust nod, sources say

BRUSSELS: French telecoms group Orange and Spanish rival MasMovil are set to gain conditional EU antitrust approval for their Spanish tie-up, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The move could signal a looser approach after telecoms companies urged EU antitrust regulators to ease their tough stance towards mergers that shrink the number of mobile players in a country from four to three.

Orange and MasMovil, the second and fourth-largest telecoms providers in Spain, announced the deal, which has an enterprise value of 18.6 billion euros ($20.2 billion), in July 2022.