An Austrian court has approved Telekom Austria’s proposed acquisition of local mobile carrier Yesss! Telekommunikation, but the decision is likely to be appealed by the country’s competition authority, say analysts.
Today’s decision by the…
An Austrian court has approved Telekom Austria’s proposed acquisition of local mobile carrier Yesss! Telekommunikation, but the decision is likely to be appealed by the country’s competition authority, say analysts.
Today’s decision by the Austrian Cartel Court is not yet legally binding as it is subject to appeal by the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (BWB) and the Federal Cartel Attorney within four weeks, said a statement from Telekom Austria.
“In addition, the acquisition of Yesss! remains conditional upon the completion of [Hutchison’s] indirect acquisition of Orange Austria which is, inter alia, subject to pending merger control approval by the European Commission (EC),” continued the statement. The deadline for the EC’s decision is 21 December 2012.
“Today’s decision was not unexpected as it had already been leaked in the local press a few days before,” Usman Ghazi, analyst at Berenberg Bank, told TelecomFinance. “The issue is that the competition authority has indicated they are opposed to the cartel court’s decision. I think this will drag on and on.”
Bernd Maurer, analyst at Raiffeisen Centrobank agreed that he expected the competition authority’s opinion to differ. “I think the competition authority will appeal it,” he said. “Today’s decision is not that important anyway; the main decision will be approval of Hutchison’s proposed takeover of Orange Austria in December, which I think will go through with more remedies.”
Telekom Austria announced today that it had agreed acquire Yesss! from Orange Austria back in February, alongside frequencies, base station sites and certain intellectual property rights, for €390m.
Regulatory approval for the frequencies Telekom Austria acquired from Orange Austria is still pending.
TelecomFinance reported on 22 November that the BWB was still opposing the takeover of Orange Austria by Hutchison.
When contacted today before going to press, a spokesperson for the BWB said they had “no position” on the Yesss! decision as it had not been delivered to them yet.
