Linklaters and Slaughter Advised in the Merger of Vodafone and Three’s £15 Billion UK merger

Linklaters and Slaughter Advised in the Merger of Vodafone and Three’s £15 Billion UK merger

Linklaters and Slaughter & May have acted and advised on the merger of Vodafone and Three’s UK businesses, a deal that is set to create largest mobile phone operator.

Linklaters advised Three UK and its owner, Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison, on the matter while Slaughter and May has acted for Vodafone.

The merger valued at £15 billion, is yet to be approved by regulators and shareholders. Once the deal is completed, there will be no less than 27 million subscribers under its belt, which would mean that it will surpass the UK's two largest operators at the moment- Virgin Media O2, owned by Spain's Telefónica and Liberty Global, as well as BT-owned EE.

The Slaughters team led by Corporate Partners Victoria MacDuff, Roland Turnill and Richard Hilton have acted for longtime client Vodafone alongside Partners Claire Jeffs and Will Turtle (both competition), Rob Sumroy and Duncan Blaikie (both inter-company and services), Mike Lane (tax), Chris Sharpe (pensions), Philippa O’Malley (employment and incentives), Edward Fife, Charlie McGarel-Groves and David Hay (all financing) and Nick Bonsall (financial regulation). They were supported by a large team of Corporate Associates Aleezeh Liaqat and Nick Johnston.

Meanwhile, at Linklaters a cross-practice team led by Corporate Partners Robert Cleaver and Hugo Stolkin advised CK Hutchison and Three UK alongside TMT Partners Georgina Kon, Marly Didizian and Rich Jones, tax partner Chris Smale and a supporting cast of 17 managing associates and associates.

It is only the latest in a long line of multi-billion-pound deals that Linklaters has been involved with for CK Hutchison, including its £10,000 acquisition of O2 UK in 2015, which was blocked by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission in 2016.

Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, which works with the CMA, has been always against any merger of the country’s four largest mobile network operators on the apprehension that it could lead to price rises for consumers but softened its stance last year, saying its position on a potential merger “would be informed by the specific circumstances of that particular merger, rather than just the number of competitors.”

Nevertheless, the CMA has affirmed that it would examine Three’s merger with Vodafone, considering that millions of consumers and many businesses relying on the services of the two companies to review the impact of this deal on competition.