{"id":33539,"date":"2023-05-04T07:29:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T07:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/vodafone-ck-hutchison-set\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T08:21:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T08:21:04","slug":"vodafone-ck-hutchison-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/vodafone-ck-hutchison-set\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone, CK Hutchison set to unveil UK mobile tie-up soon &#8211; sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) -Vodafone and CK Hutchison are close to agreeing a merger of their UK telecoms businesses, two sources said, in an expected 15 billion pounds ($19 billion) deal that would create the country&#8217;s biggest mobile operator.<\/p>\n<p>The deal would value the equity of the combined group at about 9 billion pounds, with roughly 6 billion pounds of debt, the Financial Times reported. The valuation is roughly in line with peers.<\/p>\n<p>Negotiations, which have been protracted, are expected to be completed this month, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. The second source said an announcement could come &#8220;very soon&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Hutchison is scheduled to update on first quarter trading on May 9, while Vodafone publishes it full-year results on May 16.<\/p>\n<p>The tie-up &#8211; with a planned ownership split of 51% Vodafone and 49% Hutchison, the Hong-Kong telecoms-to-ports conglomerate part-owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing &#8211; is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>CK Hutchison&#8217;s senior leadership met British government officials in March to seek political support for the deal, three sources told Reuters last month.<\/p>\n<p>Hutchison&#8217;s co-managing director Canning Fok also met Vodafone&#8217;s interim Chief Executive Margherita della Valle, who has since been appointed permanently to the role, two of those  sources said.<\/p>\n<p>The combination could also enable Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison to withdraw from the UK telecoms market, the Financial Times said on Thursday. However, it added that no agreement had been finalised and circumstances might still change.<\/p>\n<p>Vodafone and CK Hutchison did not immediately respond to Reuters&#8217; request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>($1 = 0.7948 pounds)<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru, Clare Jim in Hong Kong and Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Savio D&#8217;Souza and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/vodafone-ck-hutchison-set\/file-photo-a-branded-sign-is-displayed-on-a-vodafone\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTechnologyNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ43024-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ43024-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) -Vodafone and CK Hutchison are close to agreeing a merger of their UK telecoms businesses, two sources said, in an expected 15 billion pounds ($19 billion) deal that would create the country&#8217;s biggest mobile operator. The deal would value the equity of the combined group at about 9 billion pounds, with roughly 6 billion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1220],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-33539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-technology","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportTechnologyNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ43024-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33667,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539\/revisions\/33667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}