李嘉誠收購英國移動電話運營商

Hutchison Whampoa, one of the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s flagship companies, has agreed to buy O2, the British cellphone carrier owned by the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica, in a deal worth about $15 billion.

香港億萬富翁李嘉誠(Li Ka-shing)的旗艦公司之一和記黃埔(Hutchison Whampoa)已經同意收購西班牙電信巨頭西班牙電信(Telefónica)所有的英國移動電話運營商O2，此次交易的價值約爲150億美元（約合931億元人民幣）。

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

週二晚，西班牙電信表示公司已達成最終協議，要把O2出售給和記黃埔。和記黃埔打算把O2與它自己的英國移動電話業務Three進行合併。

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

西班牙電信在新聞稿中稱，“交易的完成還取決於相關監管部門的批准，以及獲得改變控制條款所需的棄權證書等一些常規條件。”

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

在達成交易前的大約兩個月，這幾家公司首次確認它們在進行排他性談判。

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Hutchison Whampoa would pay 9.25 billion pounds, or about $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.

根據提出的協議的條款，和記黃埔將斥資92.5億英鎊，或約140億美元，用於收購O2。最高可達10億英鎊的跟進款項將於隨後支付，這還取決於Three與O2合併後的業務表現。

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

一系列交易正在改變歐洲的電信版圖，此次合併是其中最新的一例；尤其值得一提的是，有線電視和電信公司正試圖爲消費者提供把移動設備、寬帶、電視和固定電話結合在一起的捆綁式服務。

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

O2和Three的合併將創造一個擁有約3100萬名用戶的移動運營商，對EE形成更大的挑戰。最近，英國電信巨頭英國電信集團(BT)同意以125億英鎊收購EE。

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

英國主要移動運營商也將因此減少到三家，其中包括沃達豐(Vodafone)。

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

英國的競爭管理部門此前曾表示，他們希望英國至少有四家移動運營商；所以任何交易都很可能會在對消費者的影響，特別是服務定價等方面，面臨監管部門的審查。

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

這筆交易還將是亞洲首富之一李嘉誠所控制的公司所進行的規模最大的國際收購。