Vodafone agrees to sell Dutch consumer fixed business to progress with JV

FTSE 100 listed Vodafone announced on Friday that its Dutch company has agreed to sell its consumer fixed business to T-Mobile Netherlands for an undisclosed fee, in order to settle a condition by a European body for a proposed merger in the country.

Vodafone Libertel BV is to sell Vodafone Thuis as a part of the deal with the European Commission so the company and Liberty Global, a US telecommunications company, can go ahead with the proposed merger of Vodafone Netherlands and Ziggo, a cable operator, to form a joint-venture.

The deal to sell Vodafone Thuis, which has about 150,000 broadband customers, is expected to close by December.

As part of the European Commission's investigation into the merger it concluded that the transaction does not raise any competition concerns providing the company divests Vodafone Netherlands' consumer fixed business, to address any concerns about the overlap between the fixed telecoms and TV activities of Vodafone and Ziggo in the Netherlands.