Under the terms of the agreement, Tele2 own 25% of the newly joined company while Deutsche Telekom retains a 75% majority share. In addition, Tele2 also receives a cash payment of €190 million.
“This is a great milestone for Tele2 NL as well as Dutch consumers and businesses, as the merged company will accelerate competition and investments in the Netherlands,” said Anders Nilsson (pictured), president and CEO of Tele2.
The deal has undergone the necessary regulatory processes, which includes approval from the European Commission with no conditions.
The merger was announced in December 2017 in direct response to what the companies called the existing market leading duopoly.
“We’ve started our journey to disrupt the Dutch market and we will be creating a viable and strong attacker of the duopoly KPN and VodafoneZiggo. We now can truly live up to our promise to become the customer champion,” said Thorsten Langheim, head of the group development segment of Deutsche Telekom overseeing T-Mobile NL.
Customers are set to benefit from attractive fixed mobile product packages enabled by T-Mobiles mobile network and Tele2’s fixed-network capabilities. In addition, the two companies identified synergies with an estimated net present value of more than €1 billion. The two also have complementary spectrum assets as well as healthy capex that will enable early 5G deployments.
At the time of the announcement, Allison Kirkby, president and CEO of Tele2 AB, said, “This is a fantastic opportunity to speed up development of the Dutch telco market and to spur effective competition to the benefit of the Dutch population. I see this as a logical next step to become part of a stronger number three player that will benefit our customers, our shareholders and our employees”.
The news was further confirmed in a LinkedIn post showing the newly merged teams celebrating the closing of the deal.
