Vodafone and MásMóvil: merge on the horizon

The potential merge between Vodafone and MásMóvil, which the operators involved denied some months ago, is gaining momentum and may be in force in the short term, indeed, MásMóvil commissioned Goldman Sachs to analyse the merge with Vodafone.

Vodafone + MásMóvil would be the second-largest operator.

Based on their calculations, analysts support this merge, which would result in the second largest operator in the Spanish market, with a value of over 7,700 million Euro.

A potential merge of Vodafone and MásMóvil would particularly create the second-largest operator by market share concerning mobile lines.

Orange would be the affected part.

This movement would also cause losses for the French company. It should be noted that Orange currently gives MásMóvil and Euskaltel access to its fibre network, the latter mainly through its brand Virgin, which means around 18% of its annual turnover.

In short, if they merge, Vodafone already has wide coverage throughout the Spanish territory, and therefore MásMóvil would stop using Orange’s network.

The potential rise of rates after the merge.

As we saw in previous operator merges, for instance, when ONO and Jazztel were acquired by Vodafone and Orange respectively, the first measures were to raise rates.

This situation may or may not be the same. However, the lower the number of operators and the lower the offer, everything indicates it could happen. The Spanish National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and Europe believe that the correct thing would be to keep four strong competing operators to avoid possible inflation. Therefore, we must bear in mind that we face a potential merger between the third and fourth operator.