Orange: European Commission Approves Orange's Belgium Investment

The decision to allow Orange to purchase a controlling share in the Belgian cable companies VOO and Brutélé has been made. It follows the European Commission's approval of the transaction in accordance with the EU Merger Regulation. It comes after a protracted examination of the deal's competitiveness, which got underway in July of last year. In a transaction that valued VOO at $1.93 billion, Orange and VOO agreed to buy 75 percent minus one share of the company in late 2021. 

Orange, which anticipates the transaction to close in Q2 2023, has welcomed the Commission's decision. After more than 25 years of Orange's presence in Belgium, Xavier Pichon, chief executive officer at Orange Belgium, said that the acquisition of VOO is a significant step and will allow them to function a very high-speed network in Wallonia and part of Brussels, supporting the deployment of their convergent multigigabit approach at the national level. 

Orange and Telenet, a second Belgian operator, struck wholesale agreements to address concerns about competition by allowing both operators access to each other's fixed networks. 

Under the 15-year agreement, Telenet will have access to future FTTH deployments as well as the HFC network of VOO and Brutélé, which serves 1.8 million homes in Wallonia and a third of Brussels.