Is Orange's strategy of prioritizing leadership over expansion paying off?

In late July 2024, Orange released its financial results for the first half of 2024, showcasing positive growth trends and progress toward its strategic objectives. While Orange Group’s revenue only increased by 0.9% compared to the second quarter of 2023, the African and Middle Eastern markets emerged as their primary growth driver, with a significant 10.3% revenue increase. While France experienced a slight revenue growth of 0.3%, Orange’s European operations overall (excluding Spain) saw a decline of 2.2%. Despite this, the group maintained its leadership position with approximately 9.1 million convergent customers, aligning with the objectives set in the “Lead the Future 2023-2025” strategic plan announced in February 2023.  Indeed, Orange set four major goals for 2025: Strong focus on customer experiences and quality of service Capitalize on their infrastructure Reposition their B2B business and develop cybersecurity activities Pursue growth in Africa and the Middle East Over a year later, where does it stand in achieving these objectives? M&A to strengthen service convergence and leverage existing infrastructures Orange has established itself as a leading telecommunications provider in all six of its European markets, with a market share in volume of around 33% across mobile and fixed RGUs (revenue-generating units) across these territories.  This dominant position is the result of a sustained consolidation strategy, as exemplified by numerous mergers and acquisitions, including the most recent merger with Masmovil. At Q4 2023, the Spanish mobile market was dominated by Telefonica Espana with 29% of market shares, followed by Vodafone Spain (25.2%), Orange Espana (23.6%) and Masmovil (22.5%). At the end of March, Orange and Masmovil Group completed the merger with equal governance rights for both parties. The new entity, MasOrange, gathered a 41.4% market share at Q2 2024, almost twice that of Telefonica, its main competitor, thus becoming the indisputable leader of the Spanish market. The same market structure reshuffle was observed in the fixed segment as MasOrange gathered a 38% market share. This merger is in line with Orange's ambition to strengthen its core business by consolidating its position in existing markets. In keeping with this strategy, in June 2023, Orange Belgium completed the acquisition of a 75% stake in the actor Voo. Back then, in Belgium, the fixed cable market was dominated by Telenet (65% market share at Q1 2023) in Flanders, followed by a duopoly between Voo (18%) and Orange (17%) in Wallonie. Almost one year later, in May 2024, Orange eventually acquired 100% of its competitor, increasing its weight to 37% across the country’s cable market. The same type of transaction took place in Romania over the same period. In Q3 2021, Orange Romania acquired a 54% stake in Telekom Romania Communications (a new entity created out of...