Liberty Global set to win regulatory approval for Base buy – report

Liberty Global is reportedly poised to gain European regulatory clearance for its agreed acquisition of Belgian mobile operator Base. Another fixed/mobile deal, BT’s acquisition of mobile operator EE, won UK competition approval last week.

Still under review by European officials are UK and Italian four-to-three mobile deals, a type of transaction that has so far proved trickier to win. 

US cableco Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) is reportedly poised to gain European regulatory clearance for its agreed €1.3bn (US$1.4bn) acquisition of Belgian cellco Base from KPN (AMS:KPN).

Reuters reported that Liberty had agreed to sell assets from the resulting fixed/mobile group to strengthen a rival. Liberty owns local cableco Telenet, which  until now has offered mobile services via an MVNO.

The divestments would reportedly comprise customers from Base-owned MVNO Jim Mobile as well as its 50% stake in another MVNO, Mobile Viking. Both would be sold to local broadcaster Medialaan, which would become an MVNO running on Base’s network.

According to the report, the European Commission will communicate its decision to local regulators today, before making a public announcement, which had been due on 17 March.

The deal had entered a phase two review in October, with competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager laying out three concerns: the loss of Telenet’s existing MVNO, the possibility that Base could not offer wholesale services to other MVNOs, and the potential for fixed/mobile bundling to be unfair to rivals.

The market is led by incumbent Belgacom’s Proximus, while the converged player would be of a similar size to Orange-owned Mobistar.

A spokesperson for Liberty said: “We confirm we are in constructive dialogue with the EU Commission and we are confident to obtain clearance in due course.”

KPN and the European Commission were not immediately available for comment.