Telecoms tycoon Niel to buy Orange Switzerland for $2.9 billion
PARIS (Reuters) – Telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel’s NJJ Capital has agreed to buy Swiss mobile operator Orange Switzerland from private equity group Apax Partners for 2.8 billion Swiss francs ($2.9 billion), Apax said in a statement.
The deal, struck through his NJJ Capital personal holding company, marks a new turn for Niel.
He triggered a price war in France through the launch of Free, a bundled telecoms and TV offering, by his 55 percent-owned listed company Iliad (ILD.PA), but he had to abandon in October his attempt to enter the American market when the owners of T-Mobile (TMUS.N) US rejected his offer.
(Reporting by Andrew Callus; editing by Blaise Robinson)