MVNO would have been sold if deal with Hutchison had not been blocked by the European Commission.
Telefónica has no immediate plans to offload its 50 per cent share of MVNO Tesco Mobile, following the collapse of O2 UK’s sale to Hutchison.
CK Hutchison, the parent company of Three UK, had planned to sell off the share of the business – which has almost five million subscribers – as part of its efforts to push the proposed £10.25 billion sale through the EC.
However, O2 CEO Ronan Dunne (pictured below), who himself will now remain at the operator having previously stated he would step-down should the deal complete, insisted to Mobile News it now has no plans to offload its most popular MVNO.
“We’ve been thrilled at how the MVNO has been managed in the last 18 months,” Dunne told Mobile News. “There are no circumstances in the absence of this transaction that there will be any agreement between Tesco and ourselves.
“I will enter into a process of evaluating the strategic opportunities for the business. Tesco has a better understanding of the role of mobile today having gone through this process.
“So in the long term, the venture is perhaps even more enticing to them because of that, but you’d have to ask Tesco on that. But there is no basis in which there will be any change to the JV.”
