Norway's Telenor Vows Key Changes to Bulgaria's 2nd Largest Telecom

Business | April 30, 2013, Tuesday // 15:26

The new owners of Bulgarian mobile operator Globul have announced plans for substantial changes at the company.

On April 26, Norway's Telenor bought Bulgaria's second largest mobile carrier Globul from Greek-based Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) for EUR 717 M on a cash and debt free basis.

The deal also includes the chain of stores of Germanos Bulgaria.

Kjell-Morten Johnsen, Executive Vice-President and Head of region Europe, as cited by Capital daily, made clear Tuesday that the new management would assume control over the mobile operator in Q3, 2013, with plans to make network investments, reduce operating costs, and offer bundle services.

Reminding that wholesale inter-operator tariffs in Bulgaria were among the lowest in Europe, Johnsen said that no reductions were expected in 2013 except for one tariff.

"We believe that we bought Globul at a good price from which we can derive added value" Johnsen stated.

"In Bulgaria there are two leading mobile operators and one smaller player. Globul is slightly behind the market leader, a situation we have already been through in Serbia," he noted, referring to the acquisition of Serbian mobile operator Mobi 63 by Telenor in a deal for EUR 1.513 B in 2006.

The impact of the change of ownership of the mobile operator for subscribers is yet unclear, the only certain change being that price-setting will be increasingly driven by data traffic and less by voice transmission, a growing trend all over Europe, Capital Daily informs.

The issue of a name change of the mobile operator remains on the backburner at this stage, as does a potential renting of new frequency ranges from the state.

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