CNMC greenlights Zegona’s acquisition of Vodafone Spain

Spanish markets regulator, the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), has approved UK-based investment outfit, Zegona Communications, acquiring regional telco Vodafone Spain.

Source: Vodafone

Zegona announced it is to buy Vodafone Spain for €5 billion towards the end of last year. The acquisition will mark the UK investor’s second foray into the Spanish telecoms market.

As part the deal, Zegona will be able to use the Vodafone brand in Spain for up to 10 years post-completion of the acquisition. Vodafone and Zegona will enter into other transitional and long-term arrangements for services including access to procurement, IoT, mobile roaming and carrier services.

CMNC approved the merge noting the two companies’ operations don’t overlap in the region, with Zegona not having any type of presence in the Spanish market. Hence, “the merger does not significantly change the structure of the affected markets, structure of the affected markets, resulting only in a change in the ownership of control of Vodafone,” said the Spanish watchdog.

DTVE recently reported Zegona was also mulling over plans to divest the Spanish telco’s fixed network into a new ‘Netco’ vehicle, either for the sale of the network to an outside investor or to merge it with the network of an existing Spanish operator such as the combined Orange/MásMóvil or Telefónica.