T-Mobile UK and Orange have announced they have entered into exclusive negotiations to merge their UK operations, becoming the country's largest mobile carrier.
The combined company will have a turnover of around £7.7 billion, 28 million customers and around 37 percent of the market.
In a joint statement, parent companies Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom said they expected the deal to create the 50:50 joint venture to be signed by November.
It is expected Orange and T-Mobile will continue to be run as separate businesses with both brands retained.
Initial savings were reported as between £600 - £800 million, thanks to the rationalisation of infrastructure, shops and other operations.
Total savings could be as much as £3.5 billion.
To create the new joint venture, Deutsche Telekom will contribute T-Mobile UK on a cash-free, debt-free basis, including T-Mobile UK's 50 percent holding in its 3G network joint venture with Hutchison, and gross tax losses carried forward of at least £1.5 billion.
France Telecom will contribute the whole of Orange UK including £1.25 billion of intra-group net debt to equalise the value of the contributions.
After completing the deal, Deutsche Telekom will grant a £625 million shareholder loan to the joint venture, which will be used to simultaneously reimburse £625 million to France Telecom.
As a result, the joint venture would have indebtedness of £1.25 billion, represented by two shareholder loans of £625 million held by each of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
Top Stories
News
10 hours, 29 minutes ago
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Mobile Games E12 - Xbox's mobile games store and Unity vs. AppLovin
Feature
May 17th, 2024
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from a battle royale to a console classic remake
Feature
May 16th, 2024
Behind the scenes: How adding sandwich offers to an idle merge game boosted three metrics at once
Events
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
Morocco Gaming Expo | Africa | May 24th |
MomoCon 2024 | North America | May 24th |
Unreal Fest Gold Coast 2024 | Australasia | May 29th |
Popular Stories
Feature
May 14th, 2024
53 top mobile games in soft launch: Squad Busters, Battle Guys: Royale, Plants vs. Zombies 3, LEGO Hill Climb Adventures, and more
Feature
May 13th, 2024
Hot Five: Dubai's new Gaming Visa, April's mobile game charts, and Xbox studio closures
Feature
May 14th, 2024