Thanks to a majority stake in the Indian company Route Mobile, Proximus expands its global presence and develops into one of the largest communications companies in the world.

Proximus announces in a press release that it will take a majority stake in Route Mobile, an Indian company specializing in Communications Platform as a Service, or CPaaS for short. The Belgian telecommunications operator is paying 59,224 million Indian rupees, which corresponds to around 643 million euros. Proximus holds a direct stake of almost 58 percent in the company and can be increased to 75 percent through a contractual clause.

Global Superpower

Route Mobile is added to Proximus Opal, which also owns subsidiary TeleSign. With this group, Proximus is gradually developing into a global telecommunications superpower. In terms of message volume, Proximus now claims to be the third largest provider of cloud communication services. Together, both subsidiaries will generate 900 million euros per year for the telecom group.

“With Route Mobile and Telesign, the Proximus Group now has two strong and complementary global assets, both geographically and in terms of product expertise. “This acquisition fits perfectly with our Bold 2025 strategy to strengthen our leadership position in the Belgian market and further expand our international ambitions,” says CEO Guillaume Boutin in the press release.

The deal now has to go through the relevant authorities. Proximus expects to close the deal within six to nine months. Not every takeover that Proximus tries to implement goes smoothly. In its own country, the operator is fighting (for the time being) to take over its industry colleague Edpnet.