On October 31, Cinco Días reported that Orange had reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 50% of MasOrange –the joint venture formed by Orange Spain and MásMóvil–for €4.25 billion from the private equity funds that owned MásMóvil (KKR, Cinven, and Providence). The French operator will also assume €12.6 billion in debt, consolidating full ownership of Spain’s largest telecom company by number of clients. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
The transaction, valuing MasOrange at around €19 billion, represents the culmination of a decade-long consolidation process. In 2020, the consortium of KKR, Cinven, and Providence acquired MásMóvil in a leveraged buyout worth €2 billion, a bet that has now yielded capital gains of nearly €6 billion, following Orange’s buyout.
Gala Capital’s story intersects with that trajectory. In 2010, Gala Capital became an early shareholder in MásMóvil Telecom 3.0, supporting its expansion during a pivotal moment for Spain’s liberalizing telecom market, and backed the company’s early growth, professionalization, and first steps into capital markets, laying the foundations for what would later become the country’s fourth major telecom operator.
Gala Capital exited its investment in 2016, after a phase of exponential growth that multiplied the company’s value more than fivefold and attracted leading international investors. That period marked the transition toward MásMóvil’s next chapter: large-scale consolidation and, ultimately, the merger with Orange.
For Gala Capital, today’s news is more than a landmark corporate transaction, it’s a validation of a long-held investment philosophy: to back industrially grounded businesses with technological depth and long-term consolidation potential.
The full acquisition of MasOrange by Orange thus closes a historic cycle for Spain’s telecom sector, one that Gala Capital helped initiate years ago, by believing early in the disruptive potential of a challenger that reshaped connectivity and competition in the market.
Sources
- Cinco Días, “Orange compra el 50% de MasOrange a los fondos propietarios de MásMóvil por 4.250 millones de euros” (31 October 2025).
- Internal investment records and public filings, Gala Capital (2010–2016).
- Press releases and transaction documents from Orange, MásMóvil, and KKR (2020–2025).
