• Orange buys out JV partner Lorca to take full control of Spanish unit
• MásOrange is Spain’s biggest telco in terms of subscribers
• MásOrange CEO Meinrad Spenger remains in charge and joins Orange exec committee

Orange has, as planned, taken full ownership of its Spanish joint venture MásOrange after completing the acquisition of the 50% stake previously held by Lorca.

The French operator had agreed a €4.25bn deal to buyout joint venture (JV) partner Lorca back in late 2025, but still needed the go ahead from regulators, including the European Commission, before it could close the acquisition.

MásOrange, which was formed by the merger in 2024 of Orange Spain with MásMovil, is Spain’s biggest mobile operator by customer numbers, with more than 26 million mobile subscribers and 7.1 million fixed broadband customers as of the end of the first quarter of 2026. Telefónica, which is the second largest, has around 16.4 million mobile subscribers and 6 million broadband users. MásOrange adds around €2bn of quarterly revenue to Orange’s top line – still a distant second to its home French business, which generated around €4.4bn in Q1.

Christel Heydemann, CEO of the Orange Group, said the move will help the company enact its “Trust the Future” strategy, which it announced at an event in February: “It paves the way for accelerated industrial, operational and commercial synergies, supporting greater value creation,” she added. “With full ownership comes full agility, MásOrange can now move at full speed backed by the strength and scale of the Orange group.”

Meinrad Spenger, who was MásMovil CEO prior to the 2024 merger, has led the combined company since then and will now join Heydemann’s Orange Group executive committee.

It has been a big week for Orange on the M&A front, as the French incumbent is part of a consortium (with Bouygues Telecom and Iliad Group) that finally reached a €20.35bn agreement to buy most of the assets of Altice France (operating as SFR) after months of negotiations. The move will reduce the number of major infrastructure-based telcos in France from four to three and see SFR broken up.

- James Pearce, Editor, TelecomTV