Hutchison Whampoa Limited will acquire Orange Austria from France Telecom and its partner Mid Europa Partners (“MEP�?) .
Orange Austria had estimated 2011 revenues of approximately €500 million and a total customer base of 2.3 million mobile users at the end of 2011. The company employs almost 800 people.
France Telecom-Orange currently holds a 35% stake in Orange Austria and MEP a 65% stake. As part of the overall transaction, Hutchison will sell frequencies, base station sites, the mobile phone operator Yesss! Telekommunikation GmbH (“Yesss!�?) as well as certain intellectual property rights to Telekom Austria Group, immediately after the acquisition of Orange Austria.
The agreement implies an enterprise value of approximately €1.3 billion for Orange Austria and is expected to provide France Telecom-Orange with cash proceeds of around €70 million for its equity stake.
France Telecom said the sale represents another milestone in the optimization of its portfolio.
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