李嘉诚收购英国移动电话运营商

Hutchison Whampoa, one of the Hong Kongbillionaire Li Ka-shing’s flagship companies, hasagreed to buy O2, the British cellphone carrier ownedby the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica,in a deal worth about $15 billion.

香港亿万富翁李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)的旗舰公司之一和记黄埔(Hutchison Whampoa)已经同意收购西班牙电信巨头西班牙电信(Telefónica)所有的英国移动电话运营商O2，此次交易的价值约为150亿美元(约合931亿元人民币)。

On Tuesday evening, Telefónica said that it reached adefinitive agreement to sell O2 to HutchisonWhampoa, which plans to combine the company with Three, its British cellphone business.

周二晚，西班牙电信表示公司已达成最终协议，要把O2出售给和记黄埔。和记黄埔打算把O2与它自己的英国移动电话业务Three进行合并。

“Completion of the transaction is subject, among other usual conditions, to the approval ofthe applicable regulatory authorities and the obtaining of waivers to certain change of controlprovisions, Telefónica said in a news release.

西班牙电信在资讯稿中称，“交易的完成还取决于相关监管部门的批准，以及获得改变控制条款所需的弃权证书等一些常规条件。

The deal comes about two months after the companies first confirmed they were in exclusivetalks.

在达成交易前的大约两个月，这几家公司首次确认它们在进行排他性谈判。

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Hutchison Whampoa would pay 9.25 billion pounds, orabout $14 billion, in cash for O2. A further payment of up to £1 billion would be made later,depending on the performance of the combined businesses of Three and O2.

根据提出的协议的条款，和记黄埔将斥资92.5亿英镑，或约140亿美元，用于收购O2。最高可达10亿英镑的跟进款项将于随后支付，这还取决于Three与O2合并后的业务表现。

The merger would be the latest in a series of deals that are transforming the telecomlandscape across Europe, particularly as cable and telecom companies seek to offer consumersbundled services that combine mobile, broadband, television and landlines.

一系列交易正在改变欧洲的电信版图，此次合并是其中最新的一例;尤其值得一提的是，有线电视和电信公司正试图为消费者提供把移动设备、宽带、电视和固定电话结合在一起的捆绑式服务。

The combination of O2 and Three would create a mobile carrier with about 31 millioncustomers and a much stronger challenger to EE, which the British telecom giant BT recentlyagreed to buy for £12.5 billion.

O2和Three的合并将创造一个拥有约3100万名用户的移动运营商，对EE形成更大的挑战。最近，英国电信巨头英国电信集团(BT)同意以125亿英镑收购EE。

It would also shrink the number of main mobile providers in Britain to three, including Vodafone.

英国主要移动运营商也将因此减少到三家，其中包括沃达丰(Vodafone)。

Britain’s competition authorities have previously stated that they would prefer to have atleast four mobile carriers, so any deal would most likely face regulatory scrutiny over how itcould affect consumers, particularly in the pricing of services.

英国的竞争管理部门此前曾表示，他们希望英国至少有四家移动运营商;所以任何交易都很可能会在对消费者的影响，特别是服务定价等方面，面临监管部门的审查。

The deal also would be the largest international acquisition by a company controlled by Mr. Li,one of Asia’s richest men.

这笔交易还将是亚洲首富之一李嘉诚所控制的公司所进行的规模最大的国际收购。