Telekom Romania Mobile Era Ends as Assets Split Between Vodafone and Digi
Bucharest, Romania - The era of Telekom Romania Mobile concluded Friday with the finalized sale of its assets to Vodafone Romania and Digi Romania for a combined 70 million euros. Vodafone acquired the assets for 30 million euros, while Digi contributed 40 million euros to the deal with the Greek group that previously owned Telekom Romania Mobile.
The transaction, signed in September, comes as the Greek group faces mounting operational costs in Romania. Financial results for Telekom Romania Mobile (TKRM) have been declining, with revenues of 61 million euros in the second quarter - an 8% decrease – and an operational loss of 5 million euros, compared to a loss of 0.1 million euros in the same period last year. First-half revenues totaled 122 million euros, down 8%, with losses reaching 5 million euros, a reversal from the 3 million euro profit reported in the first half of the previous year.
TKRMS customer base contracted, losing over 200,000 prepaid users, bringing the total to 1.45 million,who will transition to Digi Romania. Conversely, Telekom Romania gained 5,640 subscribers, reaching 1.978 million – these users will move to Vodafone.
OTE INROMERIA invested 5.8 million euros in the second quarter, with a projected total of 60 million euros allocated to support operations through the transfer to Vodafone and Digi. According to Babis Mazarakis, financial director of OTE and CEO of TKRM, eliminating the Romanian operations would have resulted in a free cash flow of 530 million euros, reduced to 460 million euros with Romania included - representing the current projection.
“This transaction strengthens the Vodafone position in romania, by expanding the local presence and capitalizing on the benefits from the complementarity of the two companies,” stated margherita della valle, CEO of Vodafone Group. “thus, we reconfirm the strategic direction of building strong operations in markets with notable development.”
