Orange in Talks to Buy Romanian Retailer

Orange is understood to be in talks to buy out Romania's last substantial independent mobile phone retailer, Euro-GSM. The company, currently owned by the Cluj-based Fodor family operates some 130 Orange branded mobile phone retail outlets and has an estimated market valuation of EUR20 million.

The move could be seen as defensive by Orange after Vodafone recently brought rival mobile phone retailer, Proton Technologies which had been one of the major suppliers of customers to Orange. Proton is the third largest Orange dealer in the market, after the Fonomat and Euro-GSM retailers.

The Fodor family also own a second chain of retail outlets, Mobile Distribution which is said to be the largest distributor of Orange and Vodafone PrePay topup cards. It is not known if the negotiations would also include this second company.

Posted to the site on 15th August 2008