The European Commission says it will make a ruling on Orange’s proposed acquisition of Telekom Romania’s fixed-line business on July 28.
Ziarul Financiar reports that although this will be only two weeks later than the EC previously planned, it still amounts to an “extremely aggressive timetable” in approving a transaction that will have far-reaching implications for the Romanian communications market.
Indeed, the EC says it was only notified of the transaction on June 8.
Ziarul Financiar adds that eight months after the announcement of the transaction, no representative of the Romanian government has officially explained who approved the sale, what the Romanian state will retain after the sale of the former Romtelecom and what commitments Orange and Deutsche Telekom have made to receive the “blessing” to go before the sale-purchase contract.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, last November Greece’s OTE, which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has agreed to sell its 54% stake in Telekom Romania Communications (TKR) to Orange Romania for €268 million.
