Telecom Italia Ends Talks With Hutchison Whampoa On Wireless Merger

(RTTNews) - Italian telecom company Telecom Italia SpA (TI, TIAOF.PK) said Thursday that it has ended talks with Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (HUWHY.PK, HUWHF.PK) over a possible merger of their mobile operations in Italy.

In a statement, Telecom Italia said its board of directors determined that at present, there were no elements necessary to start negotiations. Telecom Italia's board, chaired by Franco Bernabè, examined the results of the talks with Hutchison Whampoa regarding a possible integration with that company's Italian business, 3 Italia.

The two companies had started preliminary talks for a merger in April. However, talks between the two companies were later suspended as Telecom Italia explored the spin-off of its fixed-line access network. In late May, Telecom Italia said its board decided to spin off the Telecom Italia access network into a separate company.

Hutchison Whampoa has been active in Europe amid the ongoing consolidation in Europe's telecom market. In late June, Hutchison Whampoa agreed to acquire Spanish telecommunication group Telefonica SA's (TEF, TDE.L) Irish business, Telefonica Ireland, for 850 million euros. Hutchison Whampoa owns the Three mobile brand in Ireland.

In early January, Hutchison Whampoa completed the acquisition of Orange Austria GmbH from France Telecom SA (FTE) and private equity firm Mid Europa Partners. The deal had an enterprise value of about 1.3 billion euros, or $1.72 billion.

TI closed Wednesday's trading on the NYSE at $6.70, down $0.05 or 0.74 percent on a volume of 270,585 shares. HUWHY.PK closed trading on Wednesday at $21.29, down $0.02 or 0.09 percent on a volume of 17,553 shares.