Off the wire
• Bonds trading rise 43 pct as investors search for higher yields in Kenya  • Chase Bank secures 50 mln USD lending facility from AfDB  • U.S. dollar extends losses amid Fed Chair Yellen's remarks  • Macedonian industrial production grows by 15.2 pct in February  • Chinese investors eye Tanzania's power generation sector  • Kenyan police arrest 3 over inter-tribal clashes in border region  • Crude prices edged up as U.S. dollar tumbles  • Nigeria attributes delayed trials to poor investigation  • Police foil bomb attack on police station in southern Somalia  • Most scientists want Britain to stay in EU: Nature poll  
You are here: 　 Home

EU opens probe into Hutchison-VimpelCom deal

Xinhua, March 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) antitrust watchdog on Wednesday opened an in-depth investigation into the proposed joint venture between the telecommunications activities of Hutchison and VimpelCom in Italy.

The European Commission in a statement said it had concerns that the deal between the Italian telecom units could lead to higher prices, less choice and reduced innovation for mobile customers in Italy.

The transaction, valued at 21.8 billion euros (24.7 billion U.S. dollars), would combine Vimpelcom's subsidiary WIND with Hutchison's subsidiary H3G, respectively the third and fourth largest operators in the Italian retail mobile telecommunications market.

It would reduce the number of mobile network operators ("MNOs") in Italy from four to three and would also create the largest player in terms of the number of subscribers, followed by two similar-sized mobile network operators, TIM and Vodafone.

The EU's regulator will in particular examine the extent to which the parties are close competitors, the market incentives that would be faced by the joint venture and the potential response of its competitors, according to the Commission statement.

The EU has set August 10 as the deadline for a decision. Endit