Vodafone pulls out of Greek merger

Vodafone Group has confirmed that it has abandoned its plans to merge its operations in Greece with local operator Wind Hellas, citing the uncertainty around the Greek market as a key reason.

Although Vodafone declined to go into detail about further reasons for the failure of the bid, it has been suggested that the regulatory environment in Greece also played a part in the company’s decision to walk away from the merger.

The group announced discussions had started with Wind Hellas in August 2011, but stated at the time that there was no certainty that an agreement would be reached.

“We have ceased discussions with Wind Hellas,” a spokesperson from Vodafone told Telecoms.com.

“We are still committed to the Greek market. Last year we purchased additional spectrum and we continue to add subscribers each quarter. We are the leaders in the smartphone and enterprise markets in Greece, so those are the areas we will particularly focus on.”

“Going forward there are still areas that we could potentially co-operate with Wind Hellas on,” the spokesperson added.

It has been suggested that the two firms are still in talks over the possibility of a network sharing deal.