Nethys to take Orange Belgium stake in exchange for Voo shares

Belgium’s Nethys has informed Orange Belgium that it wants to go ahead with the conversion of its stake on Wallonia-region cable operator Voo into Orange Belgium shares.

The move will give Nethys an 11% stake in Orange’s Belgian operation at the end of the process, while retaining its governance rights associated with the stake in Voo.

Nethys’ decision comes after it secured approval for the move from intercommunal utilities and telecoms investment outfit ENODIA.

The proposal will be presented to the Orange Belgium Board of Directors in the next few days, and may be analysed by a committee of independent Orange Belgium directors, with the support of an independent expert, who will then submit an opinion to the board. Before it goes through the deal will then have to be approved by Orange’ Belgium’s shareholders.

Orange completed the acquisition of a 75% stake minus one share in Voo in June, taking forward its plan to become a national convergent player active in fixed and mobile telecoms, with a fixed network from Voo covering Wallonia and the Brussels region.

The deal valued Voo at €1.8 billion and came after securing EC approval following an in-depth investigation of the acquisition of Voo and related operator Brutélé

To head off the concerns, Orange committed to provide rival Telenet, the main operator in the Flanders region of Belgium, with access to the existing fixed network infrastructure in the Wallonia region for 10 years, as well as access to Orange’s own future FTTP network, which it plans to roll out over the next few years.