Representatives of regulators and companies involved in the €1.3bn sale of Orange Austria met yesterday [Thursday] to discuss the course of action required for antitrust approval of the transaction, TelecomFinance has learned.
The meeting of the…
Representatives of regulators and companies involved in the €1.3bn sale of Orange Austria met yesterday [Thursday] to discuss the course of action required for antitrust approval of the transaction, TelecomFinance has learned.
The meeting of the “working group” was attended by members of the European Commission (EC), Austrian competition regulator BWB, Austrian telecoms regulator RTR and representatives of Orange, Hutchison, and Telekom Austria.
The parties discussed the best approach to take for the clearance procedure, including the pre-notification period in Brussels and in Vienna.
Meanwhile the proposed sale of Orange’s no frills subsidiary Yesss!, certain frequencies and infrastructure assets to Telekom Austria, remains a major concern for the BWB. The Austrian authority currently sticks to its view that this part of the transaction would likely cause major antitrust issues and that, if no adjustments are made, this part of the transaction would likely be prohibited.
As previously reported, the sale of Orange Austria requires clearance from the EC as well as the BWB, although the two authorities look at different parts of the transaction. While the EC will investigate the main part of the deal, the sale of Orange Austria to Hutchison, the BWB will focus on the smaller part involving the sale of a number of Orange Austria assets to Telekom Austria.
The current preparations for merger notification are still at an early stage, it is understood, and have not reached the stage of draft notifications yet.
In EU merger procedures, the EC requires merging parties to submit draft documents prior to formal notification.
All parties have agreed, however, that the two investigations will stay with the respective regulators: EC and BWB. Under EU law, the regulators can in some specific cases request the referral of an investigation from a national regulator to the EC or vice versa. Such a referral request, however, which usually results in a delay of antitrust procedures, will not be made by either of the agencies.
But the EC and the BWB plan to co-ordinate their investigations closely, it is understood.
Once a formal notification has been accepted by the EC, the Brussels-based agency has 25 working days for an initial investigation. In cases of major concern the EC can open a 90 to 105 working days phase II investigation as a next step. If this happened, it would be difficult for Orange to stick to its announced timetable for the transaction. So far the company has said that it aims to close the deal in mid-2012.
France Telecom Orange, Hutchison Austria and Mid Europa did not reply to requests for comment before press deadline.
