Deutsche Telekom’s Greek subsidiary OTE Group signed an agreement in principle to sell its Romania mobile operation to an investment company majority owned by Digi Communications.

The pact comes six months after OTE revealed it was in negotiations to offload the asset to Quantum Projects Group. It’s new deal is with West Network Invest, a company owned by operator group Digi Communications and Clever Media Group.

In a stock market statement, the Greek company noted the pair were in the process of applying for regulatory approval for the sale, which is also subject to various other closing conditions.

For Digi Communications the deal represents a boost in a market where GSMA Intelligence Q1 figures show its local unit already has 6 million mobile connections. Telekom Romania Mobile is the smallest of the country’s four players by those metrics, with 3.8 million.

The market is led by the local units of Orange (9.4 million) and Vodafone Group (7.3 million).  

In its statement, Digi Communications CEO Serghei Bulgac revealed once the deal was complete, Telekom Romania Mobile would remain “in the market as an independent telecommunications operator”.

Digi Communications has also been expanding its mobile play elsewhere of late, including acquiring spectrum in Spain as part of the remedies from the union of Orange and Masmovil and preparing for a launch in Belgium.

Rumours on OTE’s final exit from Romania have been circulating for some time, with its stake in the fixed side of Telekom Romania offloaded to Orange in September 2021.