Hutchison Whampoa’s Irish mobile operator is confident it can draw up remedies to satisfy European Commission concerns over its deal to buy local rival O2 Ireland.
Three Ireland declined to disclose the statement of objections (SO) its €780m merger…
Hutchison Whampoa’s Irish mobile operator is confident it can draw up remedies to satisfy European Commission concerns over its deal to buy local rival O2 Ireland.
Three Ireland declined to disclose the statement of objections (SO) its €780m merger received, but said the document was not unexpected given previous Commission statements on in-country telecoms consolidation.
In an SO the EC outlines why it is inclined to prohibit a transaction if the merging parties do not offer sufficient remedies. The document lists all concerns identified by the agency in detail and gives the companies the opportunity to reply to the regulator and to offer additional undertakings.
The concerns are thought to be broadly in line with a public statement issued when the deal entered an in-depth Phase 2 review late last year, with the Commission outlining competition issues resulting from a four to three reduction in the number of players.
A statement issued by Three Ireland today said: “In our view, the acquisition will increase competition and bring much needed investment to the Irish market. Nonetheless, Three will put forward strong and effective remedies to address the Commission’s concerns.
“Three will detail these and other points in our response to the Commission’s Statement of Objections, and are confident that we can convince the Commission of the pro-competitive benefits of the proposed acquisition.”
It said the Irish mobile market is currently characterised by “one clear dominant market leader [Vodafone] with the three other operators lagging behind”.
O2 Ireland is owned by Spain’s Telefonica, and the companies also compete with Irish fixed-line incumbent Eircom’s mobile offering.
The deadline for the EC investigation is 24 April 2014.
