Brussels, 05/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Bloomberg reports that the European Commission sent a statement of grievances on Thursday 4 February to Hutchison Holdings Ltd about the latter's plan to buy up O2, the British subsidiary of Spanish telecoms company Telefonica. The European Commission refuses to comment.
Already the owner of mobile operator Three UK, the deal would make Hutchison the biggest mobile phone operator in the United Kingdom. The Commission launched an in-depth investigation at the end of October (see EUROPE 11422) as it fears that the deal would remove an important competitive force and the new entity would have little incentive to exert significant competitive pressure on competitors. This could lead to a price rise and lower investment in mobile phone networks. Canning Fok, co-director general of Hutchison, in a letter quoted by Bloomberg, says that “the combined company wouldn't raise prices for five years if the deal goes through.” He also said it would invest five billion pounds to strengthen network coverage, reliability and data speeds. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)