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Commission gives itself more time to examine proposed tie-up between 3 Italia and Wind.
The European Commission has pushed back its deadline for issuing a ruling on the proposed merger between 3 Italia and Wind in Italy.
The Commission in March opened an in-depth review into CK Hutchison and Vimpelcom’s plan to combine their Italian mobile assets with a view to publishing its decision in the case in August.
On Wednesday it amended the case notes on its Website to show a new deadline of 8 September.
The move came two days after CK Hutchison and Vimpelcom submitted a series of proposed remedies to the Commission, presumably designed to protect competition and smooth the regulatory process.
The details of those remedies have not been made public.
However, earlier this week Bloomberg reported that a number of telcos have submitted preliminary bids to acquire assets that would be divested by the merged entity and are sufficient to facilitate the creation of a new mobile network operator in Italy.
The newswire’s sources claim that France’s Iliad, Caribbean-focused mobile operator Digicel, and Swisscom, which already operates in the Italian fixed-line market via its Fastweb subsidiary, have all tabled non-binding offers for mobile spectrum and a portfolio of 5,000 towers that will be hived off by a merged Wind/3 Italia.
The European Commission has yet to publish its statement of objections to the merger. That document, expected soon, could shed more light on the Commission’s stance towards the deal. After its decision to block Hutchison’s takeover of O2 in the U.K., there is some doubt over whether the Italian tie-up will be able to satisfy Brussels’ concerns regarding market competition.
