German telco Deutsche Telekom is reportedly facing problems in selling its stake in its Romanian subsidiary, Telekom Romania, as rival telco RCS & RDS look to navigate around any anti-competitive issues.
Deutsche Telekom has been looking to exit the Romanian market and earlier this year laid off 692 Telekom Romanian employees, of which 130 came from the sports department.
It is thought that RCS & RDS want to acquire the mobile services division of Telekom Romania, without taking on any of its customers. This would prevent the acquisition being subject to approval from the European Commission, as RCS & RDS already have a market share of up to 50 per cent.
Deutsche Telekom is also selling its stake in the fixed services division of the Telekom Romania business. Reports in Romania has suggested that telco Orange is interested in this part of the business.
The mobile and fixed services divisions of Telekom Romania have different ownership structures. The mobile services division is 70-per-cent owned by Greek technology group OTE, which itself is 45-per-cent owned by Deutsche Telekom, the largest shareholder of the company. The fixed services division is 54-per-cent owned by OTE and 46-per-cent owned by the Romanian government.
Telekom Romania holds rights to Uefa Champions League, Europa League, Spain’s LaLiga, Italy’s Serie A and the top-tier domestic Liga I.