Zegona has been negotiating for weeks the purchase of the Spanish operator Avatel Telecom, as has been announced today elEconomista.es. The objective of the operation is to add its 400,000 clients to the future Vodafone Spain, once the regulatory requirements that they are currently trying to achieve to execute the merger are met.
Although the same newspaper mentioned previously anticipates that they have been negotiating the operation for some time, the economic details that could give us are still unknown. Greater visibility of the project scope. However, it does affirm that it will be possible for the operation to be carried out without carrying out any financial outlay, but rather it would be done using the shares of the resulting company.
No regulatory obstacles
During recent months, the movements that have been made in the telecom field have demonstrated the challenge of complying with all the regulatory regulations that exist in this regard. However, it seems that in this case, there would not be too many obstacles so that, once a satisfactory agreement is reached for both parties, the purchase can be carried out for its subsequent merger with Vodafone.
If it materializes, Vodafone would benefit from a greater weight in the field local. Since Avatel has a large presence in what is known as emptied Spain, offering fiber optics in residential areas that need this service to improve their connectivity, even in specific points where other larger operators are not capable. to arrive.
In addition, it also represents a response to the growing competition that is emerging from Digi, reinforced as a result of the merger between Orange and MásMóvil and waiting for the European regulatory body to give the green light to said operation, whose deadline is very close to running out.
More than 6,000 employees
If the operation occurs, the 2,200 employees Avatel currently has would join Vodafone’s workforce of 4,000 employees, reaching more than 6,000 workers. Despite this, it would still be behind the template resulting from the merger between Orange and MásMóvil, with 7,000 employeesand the 17,500 members it has Telefónica Spain.
Although Avatel has been improving its positioning and presence in the market in recent years, Digi’s leap in quality, which has benefited from the surplus from the merger between Orange and MásMóvil, has been a severe setback for the growth and consolidation of the company’s presence throughout the national territory.
In 2022, Avatel recorded revenues of 265 million, with 91 million EBITDA, a growth of 39% and 55% compared to the previous year in both data. With this move, the future Vodafone would deal a blow to Telefónica, which is the provider of Avatel’s fixed and mobile infrastructure. If it were formalized, Avatel would change providers after the end of the current contract, having to migrate all its services to the infrastructure of the red operator. Meanwhile, Zegona continues trying to consolidate the purchase of Vodafone Spain, awaiting the final resolution. As well as the negotiation with Finetwork to carry out the renewal of the contract that unites both companies and which is about to expire on April 1.
