BONN -(Dow Jones)- Mobile telephone operator T-Mobile International AG (TMO.YY) is in favor of market consolidation in various "overcrowded" European countries, T-Mobile Chief Executive Rene Obermann said Tuesday at the sidelines of a media conference to launch a high-speed Internet service for mobile phones.
Therefore, "from a fundamental perspective, we welcome KPN's move on Telfort," Obermann said, pointing to the Netherlands as one of the overcrowded markets with five network operators and several service providers.
Dutch incumbent Royal KPN NV (KPN) Monday announced that it had agreed to acquire Telfort, one of its smaller domestic mobile network rivals, for EUR1 billion to EUR1.1 billion. Closing of the deal is still dependent of approval of antitrust regulators.
T-Mobile is the mobile telephone unit of German incumbent Deutsche Telekom AG (DT).
Before announcing the KPN deal, Telfort has said it was in talks with different interested trade buyers.
Obermann, who declined to say whether T-Mobile had shown interest in buying Telfort as well, said that it is too early to comment from the regulatory perspective on the KPN, Telfort deal.
Observers have said that the KPN, Telfort deal is an interesting regulatory case, as KPN's market share in the Dutch mobile market would rise to above 50% post acquisition.
The T-Mobile CEO refused to point out the other European countries that he regards also as being overcrowded, besides saying, "the U.K. is competitive, and Austria is even more competitive."
-By Joon Knapen, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-69-29725509; joon.knapen@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 29th June 2005
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