Hutchison Whampoa to buy UK’s O2 mobile network in £10.25-bn deal

Mumbai: Hutchison Whampoa, promoted by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, on Wednesday closed a deal to buy UK mobile network O2 for £10.25 billion ($13.83 billion), media reports said. O2 is a subsidiary of Spain’s Telefonica SA.

The deal, which will create the largest mobile network in the UK with 31 million customers, is a “major milestone”, Hutchison’s group managing director Canning Fok was quoted as saying.

Hutchison will pay £9.25 bn in cash and another £1 billion at a later time if the merger of O2 with Hutchison’s British carrier Three meets cash flow targets.

The deal is likely to be finalised no later than June 30, 2016, pending regulatory approvals, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The acquisition is the largest such overseas buy for the 86-year-old Li, who is worth $30.6 billion according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Earlier this year, Li had said he would undertake a re-arrangement of his businesses, which grew out of his Hong Kong real estate empire.