Brussels, 18/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the British investment company Charterhouse Capital Limited and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) to acquire joint control of Télédiffusion de France (TDF). France Telecom, the parent company of TDF, will remain the largest single shareholder, but will not exercise control over the company. TDF provides over-the-air services to broadcasters and telecom operators, and owns and operates terrestrial sites and infrastructure used for the transport of TV, radio and telecom signals. The Commission's investigation found the operation would entail very minimal horizontal overlaps between the activities of TDF and Cegelec, which is jointly controlled by Charterhouse and CDC, in research, acquisition, installation and upgrade of wireless networks. The combined market shares will not, however, exceed 10%, which prevents all problems of competition. The Commission also rejected the complaints alleging CDC's mission to finance the development of broadband infrastructure in France, which it was granted by its shareholder, the French state, could unfairly favour TDF as a recipient of the finance money. There are, in fact, strict rules for the awarding of public contracts which make it compulsory for local authorities to organise public calls for tenders for the attribution of such contracts.