Madrid, March 12, 2024.- The Council of Ministers has approved the transaction of merger between equals through the combination of the Spanish businesses of Orange and MáMóvil. The new joint venture will be the first operator in Spain by market share as it will serve more than 30 million mobile customers, more than 7 million broadband customers and more than 2 million television customers. In addition, investors have voluntarily submitted in the authorisation process an ambitious Industrial, Strategic and Financial Plan, which includes commitments to make large investments in fixed and mobile infrastructure, which could not be achieved on such a scale without the proposed operation.

The Government has authorized the operation that was reported favourably by the Foreign Investment Board last week, following scrutiny of the operation required by the Foreign Investment regulations.

In addition, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service, through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, has also authorized the new joint entity to take control over the radio spectrum concessions held by Orange and MáMóvil. Since the fusion between equals exceeds the frequency limits to be used by the same operator or business group, the so-called spectrum caps, the procedure provided for in Article 88.6 of the Regulation on the use of the public radio domain is applied, which gives a period of five months from the closing of the transaction, with the possibility of extension, to the new entity to reverse this situation and adapt the frequency limits. Any transfer of this surplus spectrum, including the 60 MHz destined for Digi according to the decision of the European Commission, will have to be previously approved by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service.

The resulting group is committed to implementing an ambitious medium-term investment plan for fixed and mobile networks and to the operational management of these networks. The operation and the commitments accepted ensure the continuity of investment in new generation networks, which will help that, thanks to the deployment of fiber and 5G networks, Spain continues to be the European leader in connectivity, with the positive effects that this can have for the attraction of investors or the fixation of population in rural areas, among other aspects.

The Government of Spain has approved this operation, which implies the existence of a new actor with the necessary financial capacity and size to compete efficiently and sustainably in the Spanish telecommunications market, a strategic market for the economy and security of the country, which will benefit Spanish consumers and companies by providing a wider portfolio of products and services.