Less than a day after Orange denied it had begun merger talks with rival French telco Bouygues Telecom, fresh rumours emerged claiming that the company is eyeing Dutch incumbent KPN and Belgian operator Proximus.
Unnamed sources cited by The Wall Street Journal late on Tuesday said that Orange is considering mu ltiple acquisitions in order to build scale in a bid to avoid being taken over itself in future.
According to the report, KPN and Proximus are among the targets suggested by Orange’s advisors.
Orange’s name has been routinely cropping up in reports about both domestic and cross-border M&A.
Earlier on Tuesday, Orange played down speculation it is in early deal talks with Bouygues Telecom, following a Bloomberg report to the contrary.
In late November, Orange and Telecom Italia both denied another report by the same newswire claiming the two were discussing a tie-up. This was the second denial issued by Orange regarding Telecom Italia following a similar report in March.
However, Orange is arguably responsible for fuelling some of the speculation.
Despite issuing denial after denial, Orange’s CEO Stephane Richard has also gone on record to say that the telco is prepared to play a role in inter-market consolidation should Europe move closer to becoming a single telecoms market.
In an interview with Les Echos in September, he also predicted that consolidation would take place in France following the 700-MHz auction, which has since ended.
