The European Commission (EC) has suspended its review of Telefonica’s planned takeover of German mobile operator E-Plus.
According to an update on the EC website today, the regulator suspended the in-depth phase II review on 5 May, saying it requires…
The European Commission (EC) has suspended its review of Telefonica’s planned takeover of German mobile operator E-Plus.
According to an update on the EC website today, the regulator suspended the in-depth phase II review on 5 May, saying it requires additional information from the merging parties before it can restart the procedure. The final deadline had been 23 June.
Once the procedure officially restarts, the time during the suspension will be added and the deadline pushed back accordingly.
Telefonica Deutschland (O2) said today that it expects only a short delay in the procedure and the EC to still take a final decision by the end of June. The company expects the transaction to close by mid-2014 and is preparing for capital measures to fund the acquisition. Shareholders have already approved a cash capital increase for up to 3.7 billion shares with subscription rights and a capital-for-capital increase by contribution in kind of up to 475 million shares.
O2 recently submitted an improved remedies package in an effort to persuade the commission to improve the deal and third parties had until 5 May to comment on it.
In early April the EC had also stopped the clock on the parallel investigation into the proposed sale of O2 Ireland to Hutchison. This review was only restarted recently, after a break of more than a month.
