The long expected final stage of an extensive asset swap between the French and German incumbent telcos France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, namely the sale of the Dutch Orange division to DT, has been agreed to.
Deutsche Telekom will acquire the 1.9 million mobile and 458,000 broadband customer business for a total consideration of €1.33 billion on an enterprise value basis. The proceeds will be payable in cash upon closing of the transaction, and FT expects the closing could occur as soon as October 1.
The merger will make T-Mobile the second-largest mobile phone operator in terms of subscribers in the Dutch market after integration with its own mobile operation in the country. Dutch incumbent KPN is market leader, with Vodafone coming in third place. Earlier, KPN acquired Telfort mobile.