The European Commission has given the go-ahead to Altice’s planned €7.4 billion acquisition of Portugal Telecom’s domestic operations provided it sells its existing Portuguese businesses.
Allowing Altice to merge Portugal Telecom with its ONI and Cabovisão units could distort competition in the fixed-line market, the Commission said in a statement on Monday. Cable operator Cabovisão offers pay TV and fixed broadband to the residential market, while ONI is primarily a business services provider.
Altice offered to sell the businesses in order to remove the overlap between its activities and those of Portugal Telecom, thereby smoothing the regulatory path.
"My wish is to ensure that the merger will not lead to higher prices and less competition for Portuguese consumers," said European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. "The commitments offered by the parties address this concern."
Altice agreed to acquire the Portugal Telecom business from Brazil’s Oi in December, enabling the latter to focus on its home market and potentially freeing it up to take part in M&A activity there.
There has been talk of consolidation in Brazil for more than a year and some sort of tie-up between Oi and Telecom Italia seems to be the mostly likely outcome. Many believe Oi will make an offer for the Italian telco’s TIM Brasil business once it closes the sale of the Portuguese assets to Altice.
On a related note, the European Commission said it has refused a request by the Portuguese competition authority to assess the deal under domestic competition law. The Commission ruled that it is better placed to examine the case.
