Hutchison tried to buy Telefonica’s O2 network seven years ago, but the deal – already opposed by Britain’s telecoms regulator Ofcom – was blocked by the European Commission on the grounds that it would damage competition. Legal wrangling about that decision continues.Analyst Paolo Pescatore at PP Foresight said the tie-up will be a hard sale given that both Vodafone and Hutchison’s Three UK have been outperforming the market for the last year or so.
Customers will be no worse in terms of bills and will be better in terms of network performance, they said. Those comments came shortly after a meeting between top Hutchison executives and government officials, sources have told Reuters.James Gray, managing director of Graystone Strategy, said the telecoms landscape had changed over the past few years and that would probably make the CMA more amenable.
Three UK boss Robert Finnegan said he did not see any issue because it already complied with security rules. “This is going from 100 percent ownership to 49 percent,” he said.