Hutchison-Whampoa has offered €1.4bn for Orange Austria according to an unsourced report in Austrian daily Kurier.
The article states that Hutchison’s Hong Kong headquarters gave the green light for an acquisition in early September already….
Hutchison-Whampoa has offered €1.4bn for Orange Austria according to an unsourced report in Austrian daily Kurier.
The article states that Hutchison’s Hong Kong headquarters gave the green light for an acquisition in early September already. Hutchison, which is present in Austria via its Three subsidiary, offered €1.35bn initially, the article claims.
The report continues that Hutchison plans to sell on low cost brand Yesss!, frequencies in the 2.1GHz range and some infrastructure assets to A1, a subsidiary of Telekom Austria. Hutchison’s Three currently operates 4,000 base stations in Austria, while Orange operates 5,000. Hutchison would like to pass on around 3,000 station to A1, the article claims.
Austrian technology blog futurezone reported that Hutchison asks for up to €300m for the assets. A deal could be inked in December.
The heads of Orange Austria, Michael Krammer, and Three Austria, Ian Trionow, both refused to comment on the rumours, Kurier said.
Orange Austria is 65% owned by private equity investors Mid Europa Partners. The remainder is owned by France Telecom.
