One More for Orange

One, the third largest mobile operator in Austria, is set to change hands again. This time the bidding consortium is made up of France Telecom and Mid Europa Partners. According to press reports the acquisition contracts will be finalized by the end of this month.

The French company, which operates in the mobile world under the Orange banner, says it will use the purchase to introduce its Orange internet, mobile and TV brands to the Austrian market.

The price of One is said to be just over euros 1.4 billion. France Telecom already owns a 17.5% stake in the Austrian mobile operator. The transaction, which is still waiting for the go ahead from the regulator, should not lead to any cash outlay for France Telecom and will not have any impact on its net debt ratio targets. In 2006, the One and Yesss! brands generated a turnover of euros 633 million. The group's current shareholders are E.ON (50.1%), Telenor (17.45%), TDC (15%) and France Telecom (17.5%).

One, which has a 20% share of the Austrian mobile market, faces strong competition in Austria from Mobilkom, the mobile wing of Telekom Austria. In January of last year Mobilkom announced plans to launch its new HSDPA network. Mobilkom said that its post-pay A1 customers will be able to use the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card Breitband (HSDPA/EDGE/UMTS) in all of Austria's major cities. The cards cost euros 99 but customers, who already have an UMTS/EDGE data card can use a free software upgrade to make them HSDPA-compatible.