Spain is becoming a hugely important market for Romanian-owned Digi Communications.
Although it had been present in the country for some time, providing mobile services as an MVNO, its local subsidiary Digi Spain Telecom upped the ante in September 2018 by launching commercial fixed broadband and fixed telephony offers employing Telefónica’s infrastructure.
Digi’s focus on Spain and other West European markets – Italy and more recently also Belgium and Portugal – increased still further following its exit from Hungary, where it sold its assets, including pay-TV and broadband businesses, to 4iG at the beginning of 2022.
As of the end of June this year, it had 4.3 million mobile customers in Spain, or 25% more than a year earlier. Three months earlier, its fibre network reportedly already reached 6.5 million homes, with over 5 million capable of receiving broadband of up to 10 Gbps.
Significantly, also in March this year, the investment fund abrdn signed an agreement with Digi Spain Telecom to jointly invest up to €300 million in deploying a fibre network in Andalusia.
Now, it has just been reported that Digi is in talks with Macquarie and abrdn to sell its fibre network in Spain. Should a transaction take place, it will free up Digi to accelerate its expansion, with the focus undoubtedly being on its mobile business, which seems to go from strength to strength. Additional capital could also be used for potential acquisitions in the Spanish telecom market.
Although Digi Spain Telecom is reported to have lost €6.45 million in 2022 due to heavy investment and the impact of inflation, the company is clearly on an upward trajectory. While Romania will undoubtedly remain Digi’s main market, Spain is catching up fast, certainly in terms of mobile telephony customers, and this is set to continue.
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