Mid Europa Announces Agreement for The Sale of Orange Austria to Hutchison 3G Austria
3.2.2012
Mid Europa Partners (“Mid Europa”) announced today that, together with France Telecom-Orange, it has entered into a binding agreement for the sale of their combined 100% stake in Orange Austria to Hutchison 3G Austria (“Hutchison”), a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited. Mid Europa currently holds a 65% stake in Orange Austria and France Telecom-Orange a 35% stake. The agreement implies an enterprise value of approximately €1.3 billion for Orange Austria.
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. Hutchison has also agreed to pay a €70 million integration-related performance-based consideration to Mid Europa two years post closing of the transaction.
Thierry Baudon, Managing Partner, commented: “We believe that the proposed transaction is in line with the global consolidation trend in the mobile industry and represents the best solution for Orange Austria’s subscribers, employees as well as shareholders. The Austrian mobile market will benefit from the establishment of three large mobile operators with first class networks, sufficient spectrum as well as scale necessary to make future investments and the resulting service offerings and quality levels will become increasingly visible to their customers.”
The completion of these transactions remains subject to the approval by the relevant regulatory and anti-trust authorities. Closing is expected to take place in mid 2012.
Orange Austria is a mobile operator in Austria with estimated 2011 revenues of approximately €500 million and a total customer base of 2.3 million at the end of 2011. The company employs almost 800 people.
For further information please contact:
Mid Europa Partners:
Thierry Baudon
Tel +44 (0) 20 7886 3600
Nikolaus Bethlen
Tel +36 (1) 411 1270
Citigate:
David Westover/Agnès Riousse
+44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Notes to the editors:
ABOUT MID EUROPA PARTNERS
Mid Europa Partners is a leading independent private equity firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe. Operating from London, Budapest and Warsaw, Mid Europa Partners advises and manages funds with asset value of approximately €3.2 billion. The Mid Europa Partners team has been investing in Central and Eastern Europe since 1999.