PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Orange Netherlands, the Dutch subsidiary of France Telecom, has asked its works council for advice over "the intended sale of shares in Orange Netherlands to Deutsche Telekom," a France Telecom spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, ABN Amro Holding subsidiary ABN Amro Capital, as well as a private equity consortium comprising Providence Equity Partners from the UK and Rabo Capital from the Netherlands had all bid for Orange Netherlands, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires in May.
France Telecom confirmed on May 28 that it had received "expressions of interest and offers from potential buyers seeking to acquire part or all of the share capital" of Orange Netherlands .
Given the potential synergies with the Dutch mobile operation, T-Mobile had been a leading position to win the asset.
The sale of Orange Netherlands is part of a larger deal between Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom in which the French telephone operator will buy Ya.com, the Spanish Internet unit of Deutsche Telekom, a source told Dow Jones Newswires last month.
Orange is the smallest mobile operator in the Netherlands with an estimated market share of 8%, analysts say.
Royal KPN is the leader with a market share of almost 50%, followed by Vodafone Group and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile.
Orange said it has about 1.9 million mobile customers in the Netherlands and 612,000 Internet users. T-Mobile registered a 15% market share in the Netherlands in the fourth quarter of 2006 with 2.5 million customers, a spokesman for Deutsche Telekom said.
-Jethro Mullen, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40 17 17 40; jethro.mullen@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 6th June 2007
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