LONDON - European antitrust regulators said Friday that they had opened an in-depth investigation into the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica’s agreement to buy Germany’s smallest mobile operator, E-Plus, from its Dutch rival KPN.
The European Commission said it was examining whether the transaction will unfairly reduce competition in the mobile phone and telephone services sector in Germany. Regulators will issued a decision by May 14.
Telefónica, based in Madrid, agreed in July to acquire E-Plus in a cash-and-stock deal with an implied value of 8.1 billion euros, or about $11.1 billion.
“The commission has concerns that the transaction would remove an important competitive force and change the merged entity’s incentive to exert significant competitive pressure on the remaining competitors,†the European Union said in a statement on Friday.
The deal would reduce the number of mobile telephone network operators in Germany to three from four, and would create a rival on par with T-Mobile and Vodafone, which combined account for more than half the mobile telephone market in Germany.
As part of its investigation, the European Commission will examine the combined entity’s incentives to compete after the merger, the likely reaction of competitors and the possible positive effects for consumers related to the rollout of 4G mobile networks.
The investigation comes amid a wave of restructurings in the European telecom industry, with companies looking to consolidate or sell non-core assets.
The largest deal by far this year was Vodafone’s decision in September to sell its 45 percent stake in Verizon Communications’ wireless unit in the United States for $130 billion.
Since then, there have been a flurry of asset sales by telecom firms.
In November, Vivendi announced plans to spin off its mobile and telecom unit SFR after shedding a 53 percent stake in its Moroccan business for €4.2 billion. Last month, PPF Group announced it planned to acquire a controlling stake in Telefonica’s Czech Republic operations for €2.5 billion.
Deutsche Telekom also agreed in November to sell a 70 percent stake in its online classified advertising business for €1.5 billion and the French telecommunications company Orange reached a deal to sell its Dominican Republic operations for $1.4 billion.
