Hutchison MD Canning Fok has expressed frustration with European Commission demands for further concessions for approval of the €1.3bn acquisition of Orange Austria.
The process was “painfully slow” Fok said in a press briefing, and criticised…
Hutchison MD Canning Fok has expressed frustration with European Commission demands for further concessions for approval of the €1.3bn acquisition of Orange Austria.
The process was “painfully slow” Fok said in a press briefing, and criticised that the EC was pushing for further reaching remedies. Fok warned that weakening Hutchison’s position through “unsustainable remedies” could result in anti-competitive effects.
Hutchison says it has already offered to allow up to 16 MVNOs access to its network and it has agreed terms of a deal with a “viable third party operator”. It has previously been suggested that UPC and Tele2 are interested in launching operations using the network of the merged companies. Hutchison has not revealed the name of the interested party, but described it as a “major viable new entrant MVNO”.
According to Fok the EC is pushing for more favourable discounts for virtual network operators, even though Hutchison has offered attractive terms already.
The proposed merger would reduce the number of operators in Austria from four to three, and antitrust experts have said that this was the reason for close scrutiny of the transaction. Hutchison argues that even after the merger it would remain to be the smallest player in the country with a 22% market share.
The European Commission has until 27 November to come to a conclusion, but Fok had expressed back in July that he expected a decision earlier, possibly in August.
