Orange CFO: French Telecom Merger 'Inevitable' But Not This Year

   By Patrick Costello 
 

BARCELONA--Further consolidation in the French telecommunications market is in the cards, but there won't be any steps in that direction in 2018, Orange's chief financial officer said Thursday.

"Whatever the major players say, they all understand it is inevitable," Ramon Fernandez said at Morgan Stanley's telecoms conference in Barcelona. A recent spurt of marketing activity among French telecoms is probably linked to a belief that the competition will end up forcing consolidation, he said.

Orange won't be initiating any acquisitions that would result in three main players from the current four, however, Mr. Fernandez said, noting Orange is in a good position, from which it can avoid the kind of complexity involved in a merger.

Orange won't stand in the way of consolidation among other players, however, since the end result would be positive for the sector, he said.

Some of Orange's competitors have good reasons to push for consolidation soon, with a first window of opportunity potentially arriving in the first half of 2019, Mr. Fernandez said.

He didn't think regulatory hurdles would be too challenging.

"It is obvious that if you go from four players to three it will still be a competitive market," he said. "This is a decision these four players have to make."

Write to Patrick Costello at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 16, 2018 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT)

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