Telco M&A in Europe: Dissecting the Masmovil-Orange approval document – key takeaways for future M&A in Europe

We will be hosting a call with ex DG Comp legal advisor Pablo Asbo to discuss the recently published Masmovil-Orange approval documents and European Telco M&A in general, including deals involving non EU companies.

The EU has finally published the full approval document for the Masmovil-Orange deal (HERE). We will be discussing the contents of the document with Pablo to see what can we learn from the text, what the language used means, what ratios are used and why, and so on; from this, we will look to make takeaways for other possible Telco M&A deals – read about those HERE.

In addition, we will also touch on the subject of M&A involving non-EU companies – this is a particularly hot topic at the moment as it involves possible moves for Telefonica, Portugal Telecom (Altice), and PPF, with minority stakes having already been taken in Vodafone, and BT. The EC recently started an in-depth investigation into the acquisition of PPF Telecom by e& from the UAE, under new rules that apply to mergers: the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, and this is the first time this Regulation has been used in a merger situation.