Cyta Hellas gets green light from Greek Telecoms commission

Cyta has been given the go ahead by the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) for the sale of its troubled Greek subsidiary Cyta Hellas to Vodafone.

From the sale, state-owned Cyta pocket the amount of EUR 118 mln.

The sale will proceed within the agreed timetable so as to avoid extra costs to the semi-governmental organisation.

Any delays in the approval of the agreement by EETT would have involved complications, as Cyta would need to inject more cash to cover losses of the subsidiary, which, albeit limited, would require approval

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to procedures from the Finance Ministry, the Cabinet and subsequently the Cyprus parliament.

The sale process had begun at the end of last year with the sale agreement of Cyta Hellas being completed at the end of February.

Two months later, at the end of April, the Greek Competition Commission gave the green light for Vodafone to acquire total control of Cyta Hellas.

The Commission concluded that that there was no risk of a monopoly being created in the Greek market.

The green light by the Greek Competition Committee was followed by the approval of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission, which in May had asked for a detailed audit of the deal.

Although detailed audits take about 90 days, EETT completed the takeover review within 45 days, thus giving the go ahead last week for Cyta and Vodafone to complete the deal.

A detailed audit was deemed necessary, as with the acquisition of Cyta Hellas by Vodafone, the number of electronic communications providers dropped from five to four, while EETT is also looking into the expected sale of another provider.

Greece’s Forthnet, with double subscriber volumes and turnover in relation to Cyta Hellas, is also expected to be taken over by one of the remaining three providers.

The purchase of Cyta Hellas, will see Vodafone adding around 40,000 mobile customers and about 300,000 fixed-line broadband customers, increasing its market share roughly by 8%, to Vodafone-Panafon Hellenic Telecommunications network.

Reportedly, Cyta invested a total of EUR 194.5 mln in Cyta Hellas via its subsidiary DigiMed, having generated a loss of EUR 165.3 mln from 2007 to 2016, according to the auditor general.