Antimonopoly Office approves merger of Swan and Benestra

Following a decision by the Antimonopoly Office (PMU), there is no longer any obstacle for implementing one of the most significant events on the national telecommunication market - the merger of Benestra and Swan, TASR learnt on Tuesday. The authority decided after more than seven months of reviewing in detail the transaction and objections of the competition. "The merger of Swan and Benestra is an important milestone in the consolidation process of the Slovak telecommunications market, and it contributes significantly to our efforts to create a convergent Slovak operator capable of fully competing with the foreign trio [Slovak Telekom, Orange, O2] with its range of services," says Juraj Ondris, chairman of the board of directors and co-owner of Swan. After the merger's approval by the Antimonopoly Office, both investors, DanubiaTel and Sandberg Capital, expect that the transaction will be completed within a month. The investors have already announced investments in infrastructure, especially in the expansion of LTE networks. The transaction doesn't concern Swan Mobile, which operates the mobile operator known as 4ka.