Orange plans to become the majority shareholder in some operators in which it currently holds a stake, chairman and CEO Stephane Richard said in a Les Echos interview. Asked about the group's progress towards its target of having 300 million customers outside France by the end of 2015, he said: "We currently have a slightly fewer than 250 million customers, if you include the customer bases in countries we entered but where we are minority shareholders and where, if everything goes well, we will become majority owners by next year. I am thinking of countries like Irak and Morocco in particular."
Orange owns 20 percent of Korek Telecom in Irak and 40 percent of Meditel in Morocco. Richard said that other things remaining equal the group will not have 300 million customers abroad by the end of 2015, but its growth could accelerate if opportunities arise. He added that it would be wrong to attribute too much importance to the target number and that Orange had increased its customer base by over 40 million in Africa and the Middle East since setting its target in 2010. He added that in countries such as Romania and Belgium, where Orange only offers mobile services, it seeks to offering convergent services with fixed-line partners.
