Hutchison Whampoa £10.25 billion acquisition of O2

Overview:

• Hutchison Whampoa has made a bid to acquire O2 from Telefónica for £10.25 billion.
• This follows the 2014 acquisition by Hutchison Whampoa’s subsidiary Three Ireland of O2 Ireland from Telefónica.
• The deal would have been funded by a £6 billion bridge facility from HSBC Holdings.
• The deal follows BT’s acquisition of EE in a busy year in the UK mobile telecoms market.
• The deal would have seen the O2 brand merged with that of Three creating a company with 31 million customers.
• The deal was ultimately blocked by the European Commission in May 2016. Telefónica then looked to float O2 through an IPO but this was also abandoned in October 2016 due to market uncertainty over Brexit.

Sam Duke - Editor