France Telecom confirmed it is selling Orange Switzerland to private equity firm Apax Partners for 1.6 billion EUR.
Previous rumors indicated some other potential buyers, including private equity firms EQT and Providence, as well as a bid from Xavier Niel (the French telecoms entrepreneur, who had teamed with Goldman Sachs), and Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.
Apax Partners doesn’t want to stop there and is eyeing merger with other Swiss mobile operator Sunrise, in a deal that will likely face close regulatory scrutiny. As a matter of fact, such a merger has already been blocked in 2010 on competition grounds and I’m not sure things have changed that much since then.
France Telecom on its end plans to use the new cash to focus on fast-growing emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa.
Orange Switzerland is the country’s third-largest mobile operator with 16% of the market. Swisscom is the market leader (62%) and is followed by Sunrise (22%).
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]