The new telecommunications operator that will emerge when the merger between Orange and MásMóvil is definitively closed will have its operational headquarters in the facilities of the ‘La Finca’ business park, which is located in the Madrid town of Pozuelo de Alarcón.
Thus, the new company rules out the option of locating its headquarters in the MásMóvil facilities in Alcobendas, which do not have the space to accommodate the volume of workers that the firm created after the merger will have, and will take its ‘headquarters’ to those of Orange.
Orange currently has around 6,600 employees on staff throughout Spain, while MásMóvils has a total of around 1,800 employees. Even so, only workers whose positions are located in offices in Madrid will operate from the new facilities in Pozuelo de Alarcón.
Scaled transfer starting in April
“Logic says that those who are less (MásMóvil) will have to move to the facilities of those who are more (Orange),” said the sources consulted, who have also pointed out that the transfer of MásMóvil workers to the new headquarters will occur “in a phased manner over the coming months.” Both Orange and MásMóvil have refused to comment on the location of the headquarters of the new telecom company resulting from the merger of both companies.
However, in a statement sent by CCOO to the Orange staff on March 15, the union pointed out that “in the absence of official confirmation (although it is an open secret), the MásMóvil offices in Alcobendas will be closed before the summer and its employees will be located in Orange work centers.” However, the sources consulted by Europa Press have not specified whether the closure of the MásMóvil offices in Alcobendas will occur before the summer – as the union points out – and have simply indicated that it will be “in the coming months.”
“The closure of the MásMóvil work centers in Madrid as a result of the ‘joint venture’ and the move of its workers to the Orange offices will likely begin in April, will intensify in May and, in principle, will be completed before the start of the intensive summer session, scheduled for June 14,” CCOO said in another statement this past Friday.
In this sense, the union has expressed its concern about the possibility that the transfers will lead to a lack of jobs and meeting rooms, as well as parking spaces and shuttles, places to eat or vending machines. . .
Closing of the operation
The two companies have indicated on several occasions that their intention is to close the last pending aspects of the merger in the first quarter of this year and, in that sense, it is expected that next week, before Holy Thursday, it will be definitively concluded. the operation, which will give rise to the main telecommunications company in Spain by customer volume (around 30 million).
Once all the procedures have been completed, Orange and MásMóvil will begin to operate as a single company in Spain, although the commercial name of the new telecom is still unknown, something that is expected to be revealed in April. Regarding the direction of the joint venture, the CEO of MásMóvil, Meinrad Spenger, will be the CEO of the new operator, while his counterpart at Orange Spain, Ludovic Pech, will be the financial director and Jean Fraçois Fallacher, non-executive president of Orange in Spain, will be the president of the new telecom.
Investment and employment commitments
On March 12, the Government authorized the merger of the companies and in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, the head of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, explained that the approval of the operation is accompanied by a “very ambitious” industrial plan. ” and with a “very powerful” investment policy for the coming years in fixed and mobile digital infrastructures.
Although he did not go into too many details due to the confidentiality of the agreed industrial plan, Escrivá pointed out that it also contains commitments to “maintain sufficient employment.” In that sense, regarding the impact of the merger on employment, in mid-February Ludovic Pech limited himself to pointing out that the announced synergies “are based mainly on industrial synergies and not on employment issues.”
‘Remedies’ to Digi
On the other hand, the approval of the merger between Orange and MásMóvil by Brussels – announced on February 20 – was subject to certain conditions (‘remedies’), which were already agreed with Digi last December. The Romanian operator closed a 120 million euro agreement with MásMóvil for the acquisition of a total of 60 megahertz (MHz) of radio space in different frequency bands.
As indicated by Digi in a statement, the company signed a spectrum transfer contract related to the transmission by Xfera Móviles (MásMóvil) of the spectrum licenses for two 10 MHz blocks in the 1,800 MHz band, another two MHz in the 2,100 MHz band and 20 MHz in the 3,500 MHz band.
Likewise, Digi closed another agreement with Orange by which the latter grants the Romanian operator the option to enter into a “national roaming service agreement” in the future for the provision by Orange to Digi of a wholesale service. In this sense, the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service has authorized the new company resulting from the merger to take control over the radio spectrum concessions held by Orange and MásMóvil.
“Given that the merger between equals exceeds the frequency limits to be used by the same operator or business group, the so-called ‘spectrum caps’, the procedure provided for in article 88.6 of the regulations on the use of public radio domain is applied, which gives a period of five months from the closing of the transaction, with the possibility of extension, to the new entity to reverse this situation and adapt the frequency limits,” detailed the portfolio headed by Escrivá.
Thus, the Ministry of Digital Transformation clarified that “any transfer of this surplus spectrum”, including the 60 MHz destined for Digi, “will have to be previously approved” by Digital Transformation.
Orange can take control
Following the approval of the operation by the European Commission and the Government, the joint activities of the two companies will be formalized in a ‘joint venture’ controlled 50% by Orange and MásMóvil “with the same governance rights in the combined entity “.
However, in the presentation of Orange’s results in Spain that took place in mid-February, Pech stressed that the operator is considering taking a controlling stake after the merger with MásMóvil and acquiring an additional 1% of the joint venture. , until reaching 51%, a possibility that is included in the agreement signed between the parties in March 2022. The manager recalled that this option of taking a control position would be executed between 24 and 42 months after the closing of the operation.
