Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom announced the completion of the deal to merge their UK subsidiaries, T-Mobile and Orange.
The new joint venture is now officially up and running after securing all of the necessary approvals to close the deal, which…
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom announced the completion of the deal to merge their UK subsidiaries, T-Mobile and Orange.
The new joint venture is now officially up and running after securing all of the necessary approvals to close the deal, which was agreed on September 8, 2009.
Tom Alexander, former CEO of Orange UK is the Chief Executive of the JV and Richard Moat, the former CEO of T-Mobile UK is CFO and Deputy CEO. A Board of Directors has also been formed, on which Tom Alexander and Richard Moat will serve as executive directors. Tim Höttges, CFO of Deutsche Telekom, will lead the board as non-executive chairman for two years. After this time, the leadership will rotate to Gervais Pellissier, Deputy CEO and CFO of France Telecom, for two years.
Also joining the six-person Board as non-executive directors are Philipp Humm, Chief Regional Officer Europe for Deutsche Telekom and Olaf Swantee, Executive Vice President Europe at France Telecom.
As reported in T-Wire yesterday the European Commission will order the joint venture to sell a quarter of its highly valuable 1800MHz spectrum to a single buyer, with 3 tipped as the most likely candidate for it.
The tie-up between Orange and T-Mobile – currently the UK’s third and fourth largest operators – will give the combined firms a 37% market share and nearly 30 million customers.
France Telecom was advised by Perella Weinberg and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Deutsche Telekom was advised by JPMorgan.