The CEO of Orange Spain, Ludovic Pech, assured this Tuesday that the company does not plan to lay off personnel even after the company’s merger with MásMóvil. “The objective of the merger is to take advantage of the synergies between both companies, we do not believe that there are many overlaps and therefore no personnel restructuring process is contemplated,” said Pech, asked about the personnel restructuring process that has been launched. Telefónica during the press conference held to present the company’s third quarter results
In it he also assured that the company “trusts” that Brussels can approve the merger before the end of the year. “We are taking advantage of the “stopping of the clock” to adjust “the best possible option,” he commented in reference to the decision made by Brussels last July 28 to suspend the usual deadlines for merger processes until the companies involved did not present the necessary documentation.
That is, until they decide which assets they are going to get rid of (remedies in the jargon of the sector) in order to guarantee competition. An option that both Orange and MásMóvil tried to resist but that they have already accepted to obtain the approval of the community authorities, although there are still issues to be outlined to reach a solution that convinces all interested parties.
While this process finishes shaping the merger, Orange continues with its solo business with which between January and September it had a turnover of 3.5 billion euros in Spain, 1.6% more compared to the same period of the previous year. Although the recovery in profits that began five quarters ago has slowed down in the last one, between July and September it barely increased by 0.1%.
In any case, the company confirms a “positive commercial trend” in its retail and corporate businesses. “The growth in income from retail services continues, which links three positive quarters, with 2.4% in the last quarter (with a total of 801 million euros) and 1.8% in the first nine months (until 2,390 million euros).
The company has also increased its total customer base, which reaches 21,609,000 users as of September 30 (3.6% more than in 2022), with 17,652,000 mobile service users and 3,957,000 fixed broadband users. .
In terms of service technology, convergence contributes 1,420 million euros to Orange Spain’s business until September, 1.5% more than in the first nine months of the previous year (1.4% in the third quarter, up to 474 million).
Meanwhile, the equipment sales business increased 13.3% until September (513 million euros) and 4.1% in the third quarter (166 million euros).
In addition, 32,000 new users joined their fiber services in the last year, 9,000 of them in the third quarter. Fiber penetration in Orange’s fixed broadband base now exceeds 90%, with a total of 3,586,000 customers using its services over this technology (0.9% compared to September of the previous year).
Regarding television, the Orange platform currently has 1,298,000 subscribers, 14.3% more than the previous year.
In 5G technology, the user base reached 2,507,000 customers, after adding 328,000 more in the last three months. Orange ended the first nine months with 5G coverage over 83.2% of the Spanish population, 15% more than the same period in 2022), already reaching 2,463 municipalities with said connectivity.
