The company foresees an environment of consolidation of medium-sized telcos and sees a sale similar to that of Ahi in 2020 as unlikely
MADRID, 11 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The telco 7Play, whose activity started last October, has acquired 16 local operators to date and has 300 million euros to undertake new operations and carry out its short-term project, which involves closing the year with between 25 and 30 operators integrated into the group, as reported by the company’s CEO, José Carlos Oya, in an interview with Europa Press.
To undertake its development and acquisition plan in Spain, which requires an investment of around 300 million euros, 7Play has the financial support of the investment manager Pioneer Point Partners, which has provided a third of these needs through capital.
“How many operators are we going to acquire? Well, it depends a lot on the market situation and the value of the operations. In Spain there may be approximately 400 operators left to integrate. It will depend on whether the operators that we are going to acquire are very large and with five ( operations) we spent the 300 million euros”, Oya assured.
The director of 7Play, who was the founder of Ahí -a company that MásMóvil bought in 2020 for around 115 million euros-, does not rule out that in this last scenario the company would have to go back to the market in search of financing to face the purchase of more local operators.
Beyond the short term, Oya believes that one of the most feasible scenarios is that after the merger between Orange and MásMóvil — which is expected to be resolved after the summer — there will be three “main players” in the market, referring to Movistar. , Vodafone and the company resulting from the merger of Orange and MásMóvil.
“It seems to me that everything indicates that what will remain down there, that there will be very medium-sized people, I think that theirs is that there be a union,” Oya predicted, who believes that the “reasonable” thing would be for a union to take place. Consolidation of 7 or 8 companies “with a certain level” to create another main player in the sector.
However, he has indicated that up to that point many things can happen, such as the entry of new funds, for example, but for now he rules out a sale similar to that of Ahi in 2020 and bets more on that consolidation.
Apart from the acquisition operations, 7Play’s goal is to reach 1.6 million homes through its own fiber optics in the next two years, compared to the 300,000 they currently have thanks to the 16 local operators in Galicia, Catalonia , Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community and Andalusia that they have acquired so far.
Regarding this, only a third of its current coverage corresponds to urban areas, to cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, while the rest is “very localized in rural regions or towns with less than 20,000 inhabitants”, explained the manager.
In terms of infrastructure, 7Play currently focuses its business on the retail model, that is, its networks are marketed within its ecosystem of brands and “with the end customer in mind.”
“In the medium-long term we are studying the possibility of marketing them in a wholesale format. For this we need to have a wide geographical footprint and we understand that this could come in the last quarter of this year. That is the approach, then we will see exactly what is we do”, has detailed Oya.
Precisely, to expand that “geographical footprint” the company will apply to the ‘Unico’ state grant program with a project of 40 million euros and for which they hope to attract around 25 million in public aid.
In this line, another way of income for the company is public contracts and the manager has highlighted that they mainly participate in municipal tenders.
As for the 7Play workforce, the company currently has 120 workers, but, according to Oya’s estimates, in about two years the number of employees can multiply by more than 10 and reach around 1,500.
