EU: Antitrust regulators clear Dutch Vodafone-Ziggo $1.12 billion merger

European Union antitrust regulators on Wednesday approved plans by Liberty Global PLC and Vodafone Group PLC to set up a Dutch telecommunications joint venture on the condition Vodafone sheds its consumer fixed-line business in the Netherlands.

Vodafone in February said it would pay Liberty Global €1 billion to combine Liberty Global’s Dutch cable and internet businesses with Vodafone’s local mobile businesswould value the 50-50 joint venture’s synergies at roughly €3.5 billion.

The deal would value the 50-50 joint venture’s synergies at roughly €3.5 billion in terms of combined revenue and capital expenditure, after integration costs.

“The commitments offered by Vodafone ensure that Dutch consumers will continue to enjoy competitive prices and good choice,” said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

In a joint statement, the companies said they welcomed the EU’s conditional clearance, adding that they have “already received a number of expressions of interest [for Vodafone’s fixed business and that] the parties will now proceed with the sale process.”

The sale also could include access to mobile networks for the buyer of the fixed-line business, the companies said.

The EU competition regulator in the past has warned against large telecom mergers in the region and voiced skepticism toward arguments by incumbent telecom operators saying they need to merge with rivals in the same country to increase their investment in networks.

The European Commission, the bloc’s antitrust regulator, in May blocked CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of British mobile operator O2, but partly because the combination of the two mobile operators in the U.K. would have granted the merged company access to both of Britain’s networks and to a full overview of its rivals’ network plans.

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