Hutchison completes buyout of British mobile carrier O2 for £10.25 billion

Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate owned by Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, has bought Britain’s second-largest mobile carrier, O2, for £10.25 billion (HK$118.23 billion).

The deal was first announced on January 23. O2 was owned by Spain’s Telefonica.

Hutchison shares climbed 1.16 per cent in early morning trading on Wednesday to HK$104.8.

It already owns rival British operator Three and would hold about 40 per cent of the market if the O2 deal is approved by regulators. Hutchison would combine O2 and Three’s operations after the completion of the deal, the company said in a regulatory filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday morning.

Hutchison said it would pay an initial £9.25 billion and then an extra £1 billion if the operations of the combined company hit a cash flow threshold.