<article>Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty. has agreed to combine its mobile phone business in Australia with broadband provider TPG Telecom Ltd. to create a company worth as much as A$10.9 billion ($8 billion).</article>

Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty. has agreed to combine its mobile phone business in Australia with broadband provider TPG Telecom Ltd. to create a company worth as much as A$10.9 billion ($8 billion).
Vodafone Hutchison shareholders will have a 50.1 percent stake in the group, with TPG owning the rest, according to a statement Thursday. The new entity, which will have the “scale and financial strength to compete more effectively” with Telstra Corp. and Optus, will have an implied enterprise value of A$15 billion, according to the release.
Vodafone Hutchison’s current boss Inaki Berroeta will be the chief executive officer, while TPG Telecom’s chief executive David Teoh will become chairman of the new entity, described as “a merger of equals.”
For more details on the deal, click here.
The consolidation, unanimously recommended by TPG’s board, comes amid intensifying competition in Australia’s telecommunications industry. It will unite TPG, best known locally for its fixed-line broadband services, with Vodafone Hutchison’s almost 6 million mobile customers. The combined group, to be listed on the local stock exchange and called TPG Telecom Ltd., will have annual revenue of more than A$6 billion, according to the statement.
“With this merger, we will be a more formidable competitor against Telstra and” Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.’s Optus unit, Teoh said in the statement. TPG will spin off its Singapore mobile business.
Vodafone Hutchison, owned by Vodafone Group Plc and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd., is Australia’s third-largest mobile operator. Amid intensifying competition and the rising cost of handsets, its loss widened to A$92.3 million in the six months ended June 30 from A$81.5 million a year earlier, according to filings.
TPG is being advised by Macquarie Capital and Herbert Smith Freehills, while Vodafone Hutchison is being advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG and Norton Rose Fulbright.
<h4>Bloomberg</h4>

Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty. has agreed to combine its mobile phone business in Australia with broadband provider TPG Telecom Ltd. to create a company worth as much as A$10.9 billion ($8 billion).

Vodafone Hutchison to combine Australia biz with TPG Telecom to create $8b entity

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Vodafone Hutchison to combine Australia biz with TPG Telecom to create $8b entity

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