By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Orange said it planned to
carve out its mobile towers in most European countries where it
is present, in a move aimed at shoring up the telecom group's
value as tough competition in the region has hampered its growth
and margins.
France's former telecoms monopoly said that it owned about
40,000 towers of its mobile network on the continent. The first
so-called national "TowerCos" will be created in France and
Spain, the company's two biggest markets, in 2020.
The Paris-based company will retain control over all these
new entities and is hoping to eventually merge them into a
European company. This entity will also be majority-owned by
Orange.
"It is a vehicle that will enable us to play a possible role
in consolidation at European level," Chief Executive Officer
Stephane Richard said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.
Orange is jumping on a bandwagon of European companies that
are considering selling part of their mobile networks on the
back of sky-rocketing valuations for infrastructure assets, and
a growing appetite for them from groups such as U.S. investment
firm KKR and Spain's Cellnex.
The announcement came as part of Orange's new five-year
strategic plan.
New financial targets include a growth of group core
operating profit between 2% and 3% by 2023 and a target for its
organic cash flow from telecoms activities to grow from a base
of more than 2 billion euros ($2.20 billion) in 2019 and 2020 to
between 3.5 and 4 billion euros by 2023.
($1 = 0.9073 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain;
Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
Vodafone (VOD)