MADRID (Reuters) -Telefonica supports the merger of its two smaller Spanish rivals MasMovil and the local unit of France's Orange, its CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete said on Thursday.
"In the case of Spain we are in favour of the Orange-MasMovil transaction and we think it should be approved without remedies," Alvarez-Pallete told analysts during a call to discuss the company's fourth-quarter financial results.
Remedies are the conditions anti-trust authorities impose for mergers to protect free competition in specific markets.
Anti-trust regulators have still to rule on the 18.6 billion euro ($19.7 billion) planned deal to create Spain's largest operator in terms of clients, surpassing Telefonica (BME:TEF), which was agreed last year.
The CEO said in the event that "very limited remedies" were eventually imposed, Telefonica would evaluate whether to buy any assets put out for sale.
Telefonica and other operators in Spain have argued for telecom industry consolidation as they consider cut-throat competition hampered their ability to carry out investment such as the roll out of 5G networks by keeping prices too low.
"The Spanish market's competition is already intense enough so that this concentration doesn't alter it," Alvarez-Pallete said in an interview.
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