News
European Commission sets provisional deadline of 11 March in consolidation case.
Hutchison Europe and Vimpelcom have formally notified the European Commission of their intention to merge their Italian fixed and mobile businesses.
The telcos made the filing on Friday, according to case information published by the Commission’s competition arm.
The Commission has set an initial deadline of 11 March to make a ruling in the case.
As they announced in August, the operators intend to bring together their 3 Italia and Wind businesses under Hutchison 3G Italy Investments, which is currently owned by Hutch but will become a 50:50 joint venture.
The firms value their combined business at €21.8 billion.
Presuming the tie-up passes European Commission scrutiny, the merged entity – the companies have yet to share a brand name – will become a strong competitor for Telecom Italia.
The deal makes little difference to the shape of Italy’s fixed-line market, where Wind is the second largest player behind Telecom Italia; it had a 13.4% market share as of the end of September, according to regulator Agcom, compared with the incumbent’s 58.7%. Wind also has 15.4% of the fixed broadband market.
The European Commission will doubtless primarily concern itself with the mobile sector though.
Wind and 3 Italia are the third and fourth-largest players in the market respectively, but together claimed a market share of 33.9% at end-September, putting them just ahead of Telecom Italia, which had 32.3% and pushing Vodafone, with 26.5%, into third place.
Whether or not the Commission will be satisfied with a roughly evenly split three-player market remains to be seen though.
