What’s up with… Zegona, Telecom Italia, Sateliot

• Zegona gets Vodafone Spain acquisition over the line
• EC clears Telecom Italia’s NetCo sale  
• Spanish satellite firm ready for lift-off

In today’s industry news roundup: Zegona completes its €5bn takeover of Vodafone Spain; Telecom Italia gets the all clear from the EC to sell its NetCo division; Spanish satellite firm Sateliot is to launch its first satellites that support 5G IoT services; and much more!

Only seven months after the deal was first announced, Zegona Communications has completed the €5bn acquisition of Vodafone Spain, the country’s third-largest telco. Zegona’s executive team, led by chairman and CEO Eamonn O’Hare (pictured above), believe they have landed a “scale business with significant cash flow potential.” Vodafone Spain, which has more than 13 million mobile and about 3 million fixed broadband customers, has annual revenues of €3.9bn and cash flow (EBITDA less capex and spectrum\licence costs) of €400m, “strong market positions in both consumer and B2B segments” and a high-speed fixed broadband network that passes 10.7 million homes (95% of Spanish households). “We have now completed the acquisition of Vodafone Spain and look forward to transforming the business and returning it to growth,” stated O’Hare in this announcement. “I am pleased to welcome José Miguel García to lead Vodafone Spain as CEO, reuniting a team that has a proven track record of highly successful operational transformations in Spanish telecoms.” According to Zegona, García “has an extremely strong track record of creating value in the Spanish telecommunications market, including his tenure as CEO of Euskaltel,” which Zegona and other investors sold to MásMóvil in 2021. “The sale of Euskaltel to MasMovil for €3.5bn delivered an 87% return for Zegona shareholders,” noted the company.  

The European Commission has given Telecom Italia (TIM) “unconditional approval” for the sale of its NetCo fixed access network division to private equity firm KKR in a deal valued at up to €22bn. “The commission investigated the impact of the transaction on the market for wholesale broadband access services in Italy and concluded that it would not significantly reduce the level of competition,” it noted in this announcement. The news came a day after Telecom Italia announced first-quarter group revenues of €3.9bn, up by 1.2% year on year thanks to an 8.1% increase in revenues to €1.1bn in Brazil. 

Spanish satellite company Sateliot is set to launch four satellites from its 5G-IoT constellation on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission in July, the company has announced. “The company, which is deploying the first low-earth orbit satellite constellation with 5G standards for IoT and 100% global coverage, will commence its commercial phase with these satellites,” and has already secured €200m in recurring revenue contracts from over 400 clients in 50 countries worldwide, it stated. Sateliot has been working in partnership with Telefónica for some time, as we reported last year. 

In an effort to address significant market power by some tech giants, Chinese regulators have asked Tencent to take action to lower the mobile payments market share currently held by its WeChat app, according to Nikkei Asia. The move is aimed particularly at the market share for in-person payments made by scanning QR codes. Although there are dozens of digital payment applications, the Chinese market is dominated by WeChat Pay, which is believed to be the market leader, and Alibaba’s AliPay. 

Singtel and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin) have agreed to invest in a new submarine cable system connecting Singapore and Batam, Indonesia, under the newly formed INSICA (Indonesia Singapore Cable System) Consortium. When operational in the fourth quarter of 2026, the 100km INSICA cable system will “support the surge in datacentre telecommunications traffic between Singapore and Batam,” noted Singtel in this announcement. As we have recently reported, Asia is a hotbed of datacentre development right now, with Singapore a key hub of activity. According to Singtel, INSICA will feature a 24-fibre pair subsea cable and two diverse terrestrial cable paths, offering a maximum capacity of up to 20 Tbit/s per fibre pair. “This will deliver exceptional bandwidth, seamless connectivity and robust network security and enable efficient resource sharing and scalability. The new diverse link provided by INSICA will enhance network protection and reliability, ensuring uninterrupted 24/7 operations for datacentres,” noted Singtel.

- The staff, TelecomTV