Carphone Warehouse makes Spanish acquisition
Fixed line provider Xtra Telecom joins expanding business
March 8 2004
Carphone Warehouse has continued its transformation from a retailer into a full blown service provider with the acquisition Xtra Telecom, a Spanish alternative fixed line telecom provider.
The deal expands Carphone Warehouse’s fixed line business from the UK, where it launched the TalkTalk service last year, into continental Europe.
Xtra currently focuses on the SME business market, and is to launch a new residential service marketed by Carphone Warehouse’s Spanish chain Phone House.
Carphone Warehouse is paying €11.5m for Xtra in instalments over two years, with further payments up to €12.2m dependent on performance and targets.
Charles Dunstone, chief executive Carphone Warehouse, said: “With the deregulation of the European telecoms market, carrier pre-select services offering business and residential customers a seamless and lower cost alternative to incumbent telcos are becoming a natural and growing trend.
“We see opportunities to enter this market in a number of countries where we already have well-established operations, replicating and adapting the successful model we have developed in the UK with Opal and talktalk.
“The Spanish market is particularly attractive as our first fixed line step abroad, because of the critical mass and momentum of our retail business and the relatively high market share of the incumbent provider.
‘Xtra is a well-managed business with a low cost culture that can make further progress in the small business market, and that, combined with the strength of our Spanish retail operations, enables us to create what we believe will be a compelling proposition in the residential market.”
Luis Camarena, CEO of Xtra, said: “We are very pleased to become part of the Carphone Warehouse group. We are excited about the prospects both for our existing business and for the residential offering.
“Carrier pre-select is a growing feature of the Spanish market, with customers in both the business and residential sectors increasingly aware of the savings they can make. Combining the retail presence of The Phone House and the expertise of Opal with our existing business gives us an excellentopportunity for growth. This is a great deal for customers and employees alike.”
