U.K. authorities want to review the merger of France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG’s British units, telling European Union authorities that the deal may significantly affect competition in the country.

The Office of Fair Trading asked the European Commission, the EU agency currently investigating the deal, to transfer the case to the U.K., the OFT said in a statement today. The EU will rule by March 1 on the request.

An Egyptian court will issue a verdict on Wednesday on Orascom Telecom’s (ORTE.CA) (ORTEq.L) attempt to block an offer by France Telecom (FTE.PA) to buy all of Egyptian telecom operator Mobinil’s (EMOB.CA) outstanding shares.

An Egyptian appeals committee has rejected a request by Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA) that the regulator block France Telecom’s (FTE.PA) latest bid to buy all of Mobinil (EMOB.CA) shares, the regulator said on Saturday.

France Telecom subsidiary Orange Participations earlier this month offered 245 Egyptian pounds ($44.63) for each share in Mobinil, Egypt’s biggest mobile firm by subscribers. The offer began on Dec 15 and will end on January 14.

Orascom (ORTEq.L) and France Telecom are Mobinil’s main shareholders, but neither has a majority stake. The two have been locked in an ownership dispute since 2007.

“The committee has approved the earlier decision,” allowing France Telecom to go ahead with its offer, Khaled Serry Seyam, deputy chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, said.

Switzerland’s competition watchdog will examine closely the planned merger between France Telecom’s Orange and Danish-owned Sunrise to ensure the grouping does not dominate the Swiss mobile market.

Along with Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange are the main players in Switzerland’s mobile phone market. The planned merger, with a market share of 40 percent, would reduce the number of competitors to two from three, the watchdog, ComCo, said on Monday.

“There are signs the planned merger could lead to or increase a market dominant position in various areas of mobile telecommunications,” ComCo said, adding that it would conclude its examination within four months.

France Telecom announced in late November it would pay 1.5 billion euros ($2.15 billion) for a 75 percent stake in a new company with the assets and clients of Sunrise, owned by Denmark’s TDC, and Orange.

The deal, which is expected to close in May 2010, comes as European telecom operators are seeking ways to cut costs and improve profitability in mature markets with few growth prospects.

One solution for telecom groups is to buy out rivals to reduce competition in markets.

TDC is 88-percent owned by private equity firms Apax Partners, the Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), Permira Advisers and Providence Equity.

Shares in France Telecom were little changed by the announcement and were up 1.3 percent at 1020 GMT, outperforming the European Dow Jones Telecommunications index. Those in rival Swisscom were up 0.5 percent.

Original story

(Cellular-news.com) France Telecom has been ordered to repay around EUR 1 billion (US$1.5 billion) of illegal state aid back to the French government. The actual ruling is for between EUR798 million and EUR 1.14 billion, but also includes interest charges since the state aid was offered.

France Telecom benefited from advantageous tax arrangements between 1994-2002 where France Telecom was excepted from direct local taxes (including business tax). With respect to those direct local taxes, special conditions were laid down regarding the rate, the base and the taxation arrangements.

The Commission’s Competition Commission ruled in 2004 that the tax arrangements were illegal, and in 2007 the European Court of Justice ruled that the government had failed to reclaim the monies as required.

The latest ruling comes from the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. An appeal, limited to points of law only, may be brought before the Court of Justice within two months.

Original Story

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