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Apax buys Orange’s Swiss unit for $2.14bn
28 December 2011
Private equity company wins Orange Switzerland in $2.14bn deal with France Telecom Orange
Read more:
Orange
Apax
Switzerland
France Telecom
Sunshine
TDC
France Telecom Orange has agreed to sell its Swiss mobile unit Orange Switzerland to private equity investment firm Apax Partners for 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.14 billion).
The deal, subject to approval by Swiss authorities, will be presented to the board of directors of France Telecom for approval during the week starting January 9 2012. Switzerland’s competition regulator blocked an earlier attempt to merge the unit with TDC’s rival operator Sunshine. TDC eventually sold Sunshine to another private equity company.
The sale is part of France Telecom’s strategy to offload some European assets and concentrate on the emerging telecoms sector in Africa and the Middle East.
France Telecom’s European operations will continue in France, Spain, the UK — where it has a joint venture with Deutsche Telekom — and Poland. GTB
Further reading from Global Telecoms Business:
Hutch 'to buy Orange Austria' for $1.4bn 28 Nov 2011
Bids for Orange Swiss due in December 10 Nov 2011
Orange Switzerland sale to start soon 03 Oct 2011
TDC sells Swiss unit to CVC for $3.3bn 17 Sep 2010